Sunny morning today so set off for a run, vaguely planning to revisit the Eden Valley, south east of Carlisle. By the time I got down to the road (3/4 mile from the house), I had decided that I couldn’t be arsed riding the boring bit between Dumfries and Carlisle, so I headed north instead. By the time I reached Corsock, the sky ahead was full of rain clouds and looked miserable, so I turned again, to follow the sunshine round the coast.
Passing Dumfries, I took a side road which gives a grand view over the village of New Abbey, beneath the slopes of Criffel. The focal point is the picturesque ruin of Sweetheart Abbey.
Carrying on round the coast, I stopped at the Drumburn viewpoint, which gives a fine open view across the Solway Firth towards Skiddaw and the mountains of the Lake District. The tide was out, and in the Solway it goes out for miles, but it comes in again ‘faster than a horse can gallop’ and has caught a lot of people out. The village of Carsethorn, once a seaport, can be seen right on the water’s edge.
I turned off into Carsethorn, which is a pretty village consisting mostly of two or three rows of early 19th century houses facing the sea, most of them mercifully not messed about with. I would dearly have liked to call in at the Steamboat Inn for a pint, but alas the law being what it is…
Next stop was Kippford, a popular holiday and yachty place on the estuary of the River Urr.
From Kippford I rode via Haugh of Urr and the old military road to Castle Douglas for a bit of shopping, and then headed for home - just on the other side of the hills in the photo.
The sun was still shining when I got home, so my decision to dodge the showers and follow the sun was obviously the right one. 
