Machars

The Machars is a gently rolling peninsula in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. Its name comes from the Gaelic word for low-lying land, and the North Atlantic Drift gives it a mild climate. Dolphins and basking sharks often appear off its shores. The peninsula stretches from Newton Stewart and Glenluce to the sea, with a coastline that changes from mud-flats and sandy beaches to dramatic cliffs. At Burrow Head the cliffs provided the setting for a cult film’s climax, while Monreith has a sandy beach linked to the writer Gavin Maxwell. The Machars holds traces of early visitors. Standing stones and cup-and-ring carvings dot the landscape, and Castle Loch contains the remains of several crannogs. Saint Ninian landed here in the 5th century and founded a church at the Isle of Whithorn, later replaced by a medieval cathedral at Whithorn. During the Second World War the peninsula hosted RAF Wigtown, whose control tower and concrete runways still stand among farmland used today for walking and cycling. Visitors find rolling green hills and scattered woodland in the east, where dairy farms once supplied a large creamery at Sorbie. To the north-west, rugged moorland and peat bogs stretch around Mochrum Fell, the highest point, while Sitka spruce plantations and Galloway cattle mark the inland farms. The coast offers beaches at Rigg Bay and Monreith, cliffs at Cruggleton and Burrow Head, and quiet lochs such as Mochrum Loch and Castle Loch.