Back to back house sitting

I’ve just completed two house sits here in Scotland. The first one was in Dumfries in the south and the second was in Luthermuir on the east coast.

Dumfries is the largest city in southern Scotland, not the most attractive but a good place to start a great tour of the south.

The house-sitting duties were caring for five Golden Retrievers, two Labradors and one mix Terrier as well as a few chooks. My hosts are Golden Retriever breeders and have nine of them in total, four of which went to a show hence the house sit.

Close by to Dumfries is a great little town called Castle Douglas which is home to Threave Castle, originally built and used by the Black Douglas clan. It’s surrounded by a moat and requires a short boat ride to get there.

Some of the other nice little towns I visited in the area were Kirkcudbright, Dalbeattie, Kippford and Sandy Hills. Each of them have great walking tracks and landscapes. Some of these places I got to see well but due to poor weather I found myself hanging out in many of the local pubs instead.

Luthermuir is a tiny village. It has four streets, one church, one school and a pub which opens four days a week. The housesit here involved looking after two Border Collies which, I must say, were two of most well-behaved dogs I have every come across. They were a total joy to be around and have awesome personalities.

Some of the places I visited while there were Fettercairn (home to the whisky distillery of the same name), Marykirk, Laurencekirk (the main town in the area) and Edzell. I had the benefit of a mountain bike to use so I put it to good use.

Edzell has a walking track called Burn walk which goes from Edzell village to Rocks of Solitude via ‘the blue door’ and it’s about 10klm return.

I’m now going to take a bit of a break from the housesitting and head to the west coast for a bit of a wondering wander.