On a map, the Rhins of Galloway looks like the head of a pickaxe: a 28-mile-long and three-mile-wide peninsula joined by a narrow neck of land to Dumfries and Galloway in southwest Scotland.
And once you cross over, you feel as if you have entered a secret world.
It was this seclusion that attracted two famous former visitors to a Victorian hunting lodge on a hidden cove framed by grassy headlands during the Second World War.
Knockinaam Lodge, now a luxury ten-room hotel with a huge lawn leading to a pebbly beach is where, in May 1944, an important meeting took place between Winston Churchill and General Dwight Eisenhower. The pair spent two days plotting D-Day at this peaceful, tucked-away spot.
Today, you can scramble up a track to a cliff path that rollercoasters along over rugged bluffs strewn with purple heather, before plunging down gullies to wave-thumped sea caves.
Martin Symington explores the Rhins of Galloway in southwest Scotland. Pictured here are the ruins of Dunskey Castle
Isolated: Knockinaam Lodge (pictured) is where Winston Churchill and General Dwight Eisenhower spent two days plotting D-Day in May 1944, reveals Martin
The Mull of Galloway is home to protected colonies of Kittiwakes, as seen here, reveals Martin
After about an hour you come to the haunting ruins of 12th-century Dunskey Castle, dramatically perched on a wind-harassed outcrop.
From these ruins a path snakes down to Portpatrick. The little town, scattered around a scallop-shaped harbour, is a charming spot and the quayside cafes sell top-notch fresh crab sandwiches.
Single-track roads criss-cross the peninsula. Winding along, you come after a while to a lane lined with palm trees. This leads to Logan Botanic Garden – established on the Rhins because of a rare microclimate created by the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. I wander through eucalyptus woodlands and glades of flamboyant exotica evoking New Zealand, Chile and Vietnam.
Martin visits the small harbour town of Portpatrick (above). It’s a ‘charming spot’, he says
Above is a lighthouse at the Mull of Galloway, which is Scotland’s southernmost point
Leaving this incongruous world behind, another twisting road leads down the narrowing peninsula to the Mull of Galloway, Scotland’s southernmost point.
The promontory here is an RSPB nature reserve, with protected colonies of guillemots and kittiwakes whose nests are in the cliffs.
A white lighthouse punctuates the farthest tip. You pay to climb 115 steps to the top, from where an astonishing 360-degree panorama unfurls. You feel a long way from anywhere here, perfect for a clandestine meeting, as Churchill and Eisenhower discovered.