Historic Scotland & National Trust for Scotland places in Dumfries & Galloway

An Iron Age promontory fort on an old sea cliff near Monreith, with a deep ditch and ramparts and views across Luce Bay to the Isle of Man; free, open at all times, a steep climb up steps from a roadside lay-by.

Unique triangular moated castle of the Maxwells near Dumfries, besieged by Edward I in 1300, with twin-towered gatehouse, Renaissance lodging and a nature trail to the old castle; adult £7.50 during works, half price in the first EH year.

Two Neolithic Clyde cairns of the fourth millennium BC above Wigtown Bay, Cairn Holy I with its curving facade of pillar stones and Cairn Holy II the legendary tomb of King Galdus; free, open all year, small car park off a narrow lane.

A six-storey tower house of the later 1400s above the Water of Fleet at Gatehouse of Fleet, stronghold of the lawless McCullochs; free, grounds open Thursday to Saturday until 31 October, tower interior closed.

A roofless L-plan tower house of the 1500s beside the A75 above Wigtown Bay near Creetown, home of the Brouns and birthplace of the last abbot of Sweetheart Abbey; free, grounds open, interior closed.

The walls of a small Irish-style chapel of the 900s or 1000s, a resting place for pilgrims bound for Whithorn, on the shore of Luce Bay near Port William; free and open at all times.

A steep 12th-century castle mound, 6.5 m high with its ditch, on the edge of Mochrum village in Wigtownshire; free and open at all times, with a rope to help on the climb.

A roofed L-plan tower house of the 1500s among farm buildings near Dalbeattie, with a Latin motto over the door and a spiral stair to the parapet; free, open all year, room for one or two cars.

Three groups of prehistoric cup-and-ring carvings on rock outcrops at Drumtroddan Farm near Port William, made between about 3500 and 1000 BC; free, open at all times, a short walk through a cattle field.

Three tall standing stones of 4,000 to 5,000 years ago on a windswept hilltop near Port William, one still standing three metres high; free, open at all times, a 300-metre walk through livestock fields from a gate.

12th-century Cistercian abbey near the Solway with fine early Gothic transepts, where Mary Queen of Scots spent her last night in Scotland in 1568; open April to September, adult £6.80, half price in the first EH year.

Quiet ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded around 1192 in the valley of the Water of Luce, with a museum of its tiles and water pipes; open April to September on Mondays and Tuesdays, adult £4.50, half price in the first EH year.

Some of Scotland's oldest Christian memorials, Latin-inscribed stones of the 500s with chi-rho crosses, behind glass in a church porch in the Rhins of Galloway near Sandhead; free, seen at any time, a short walk from the lane.

Two prehistoric standing stones of about 2000 BC on the Southern Upland Way north of New Luce, later carved with crosses by pilgrims bound for Whithorn; free, open at all times, about five miles' walk from the road.

A Gothic collegiate church of about 1400 on the edge of Dumfries, built for Archibald the Grim, with a carved stone screen and the tomb of Princess Margaret; free, open at all times, street parking.

The ruined royal castle of Lochmaben on a wooded promontory of Castle Loch, founded by Edward I in 1298 and rebuilt in stone by 1364; free, closed for conservation and seen through fencing, loch paths open.

Roofless Jacobean townhouse of Kirkcudbright's provost, built by 1582, with a laird's lug for eavesdropping behind the great hall fireplace; open April to September, adult £4.50 on site, half price in the first EH year.

A 3 m medieval wayside cross of the 1400s with a flower-shaped head, carved from a single stone, beside the old road into Annandale near Kirkpatrick Fleming; free and open at all times.

The most complex of Scotland's few surviving hall-houses, of about 1300, on a spur above Morton Loch in the hills north of Thornhill, with a Newcastle-style gatehouse; free, open all year, a short walk from the roadside field gate.

Late 18th-century water-powered oatmeal mill in New Abbey, still in working order with its wheel, kiln and miller's house, shown on guided tours; open April to October, adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

Scotland's only free-standing round tower house, built about 1455 by John Cairns near Palnackie, with the low ruins of its courtyard buildings; free, open 09:30 - 16:30, tower interior closed.

The banks and deep ditch of an Iron Age fortified farmstead of about 100 BC near Whithorn, once mistaken for a Roman fort; free and open at all times, a short walk from a farm car park.

A 5.2-metre Anglo-Saxon cross of the early 700s, carved with Gospel scenes and runes from The Dream of the Rood, inside Ruthwell parish church near Dumfries; free, open all year, key in a box outside if locked.

A pilgrims' chapel of about 1300 on a windswept hillock by the sea at the Isle of Whithorn, where travellers to St Ninian's shrine landed and gave thanks; free, open at all times, a short walk from the harbour car park.

Blood-red sandstone Cistercian abbey of 1273, founded by Dervorguilla of Galloway, buried clutching her husband's heart, its church almost complete beneath Criffel; open April to September, adult £4.50, half price in the first EH year.

Archibald the Grim's 1369 Black Douglas tower house on an island in the River Dee, reached by Historic Scotland's boat, with its artillery wall of 1450; open April to October, adult £6.80 with the boat, half price in the first EH year.

One of Scotland's best-preserved stone circles, 19 granite boulders about 4,000 years old graded in height round three central stones, beside the B733 west of Wigtown; free, open at all times, parking alongside.

Britain's only reasonably complete water-powered beam pumping engine, built about 1870 over a lead mine in Wanlockhead, Scotland's highest village; free, open April to September, reopens 1 April 2027.

Home, studio and Japanese-inspired garden of the Glasgow Boy E A Hornel in Kirkcudbright, full of his paintings and Burns collection.

A 60-metre waterfall plunging from Loch Skeen into Moffat Water, with a short viewpoint path and a steep climb to the loch and the hills.

Solway coast of rocky bays and wildflower meadows between Rockcliffe and Kippford, with a Dark Age hill fort and a tidal walk to Rough Island.

The Arched House in Ecclefechan where the Victorian sage Thomas Carlyle was born in 1795, with his cradle, desk and 80th-birthday tribute.

The Trust's teaching garden of 26 hectares of garden rooms and 200 daffodil varieties around an 1871 mansion, with a wetland nature reserve and bat reserve.