Carlisle; Thursday, 29 July, 2021
Dumfries is a pleasant small town on the banks of the River Nith, located a few miles upstream before it empties into the Solway Firth. With a few mills and some pleasing architecture the town would be an interesting place to visit anyway, but it’s main draw is one of its historic residents.
Robert Burns, the Scottish National poet, settled in Dumfries and it was in his house in the town where he died. The church houses his mausoleum. One of the mills has been converted into the Robert Burns Centre, as you can imagine this town plays heavily on it’s connection to one of Scotland’s favourite sons.
The bus took significantly longer than expected to get into Dumfries due to a major crash on the outskirts of town that had us crawling in traffic for over 20 minutes, but I made it to the Robert Burns Centre just in the time slot of my pre-booked ticket so was able to have a look around the exhibition before they closed for lunch.
From the Burns Centre I had a wander through town visiting the Churchyard and Mausoleum as well as the house that Burns lived in up to his death. By then it was time to head up to the town museum for my timed ticket there.
The museum focuses on everything to do with Dumfries that isn’t Burns related – from prehistoric remains through to the modern day. So modern in fact that there was a display on plagues – Bubonic, Cholera, Spanish Flu and Covid – that included as an exhibit the same type of lateral flow covid test that I’d personally used just a few hours earlier.
From the museum I wandered back through town, across the impressive old bridge, and into the commercial centre to grab a very late lunch, before heading back over to the bus station and picking up the bus back down into England and Carlisle.
Back in Carlisle I had a wander around the town centre before heading back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out later for dinner.
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