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 Castle Douglas: originally known as Carlingwark was renamed in 1792 when Sir William Douglas rebuilt the new village on top of the existing one, built in a rectilinear (grid iron) pattern, means you can't get lost. With King Street as the Main Street and Queen Street and Cotton street running parallel to the east and west of the main street you will find it an easy place to stroll around. Cotton Street, gives a clue to the reason for the re-build. Cotton spinning by hand was to be the towns purpose, but the town could not compete with the Industrialised mills like the one at New Lanark, built seven years earlier, which is preserved in it's original water powered condition as a museum now. The original settlement was sighted on the route of the military road built by James VI/I to Port Patrick for his support of the plantation of Ulster. A beautiful town with the Carlingwark Loch at one end of the town and a number of pleasant shops, cafe's, restaurants and hotels to visit and Threave Castle at the other end makes this a delightful place. The octagonal clock tower is striking in it's appearance (no pun intended), built in 1935 to replace a previous town house and steeple which burned down. If the town did not succeed as a centre for cotton spinning, it certainly did in other ways. Many roads, including the current A75, follow the general route of the first military road. Evidence of the importance to the town of through traffic in south west Scotland, is clear from the presence of the number of large hotels whose origins are most likely found in the coaching days of the early 19th century.
 A couple of miles to the west of Castle Douglas is "The Castle Douglas", called Threave Castle, home of the Black Douglases and built in the 1370s by the 3rd Earl of Douglas "Archibald the Grim", the Castle still stands on an island in the river Dee, prepare yourself for a long walk to the ferry which takes you over to the island, but do go, you'll be glad you did visit this magnificent building, it is well worth the walk to the ferry. The staff are very friendly and eager to assist you with stories, history and anecdotes about the castle, I learned on the trip across that the main artillery piece used to attack the castle in 1455, was in fact a sister cannon to the famous Mons Meg which can be seen in Edinburgh Castle, called Mons Magma, it was one of the many artillery pieces used by King James to lay siege to the castle containing the 9th Earl James Douglas, who finally gave up the castle in exchange for a substantial bribe from the King. You can still see the holes made by the huge bombard cannon.
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