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Self catering holiday accommodation in Dumfries and Galloway

Portpatrick Self Catering

South Airies Farmhouse
Kirkcolm, near Stranraer
01835 822277

Kirklauchline Holiday Cottage, n
N ear Portpatrick
01776 854201

About the Town of Portpatrick

The harbour village of Portpatrick is a favourite with holiday-makers. Its charm was recognised long ago by the building, in 1902, of a majestic hotel in the then fashionable Scottish Baronial style.

Visitors to Portpatrick can enjoy a park, playground, small beach, and opportunities for walks, including the first part of the Southern Upland Way along the coast. Sailors and sea-anglers use the harbour, while golfers have two courses to choose from.

For many years, Portpatrick, with the short crossing to Donaghadee, was the main port for travellers to and from Ireland. It was ’Gretna Green’ for Ireland, which had the same marriage laws as England, and underage lovers came to Portpatrick to defy parents.

Portpatrick still has its picturesque old harbour with its rocky entrance and is now busy with small trawlers, yachts and boats. The round church tower probably served as a beacon for ships in the 17th Century, and the harbour was rebuilt more than once in an effort to enlarge it and make it more sheltered, but the sea always proved too stormy, and when the mail steamers moved to Stranraer, further attempts were abandoned.

800 yards south of Portpatrick and reached via a clifftop footpath, lies the ruins of the 16th Century Dunskey Castle, set on a dramatic cliff top.

South of Portpatrick head towards the Mull of Galloway and discover a peninsula that benefits from the warming Gulf Stream and that has a rugged shoreline with quiet sandy bays ...