Dumfries Guid Nychburris Day
Dumfries's ancient riding of the marches custom sees hundreds of horses gather at dawn to ride the burgh boundaries before the crowning of the Queen of the South and an afternoon parade of floats through the town.
Dumfries repays a half-day for anyone drawn by Robert Burns, the handsome red-sandstone High Street and the Midsteeple, but the wider town offers little to detain a visitor who has ticked those boxes.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway.
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"A cherished one-day agricultural show in the spa town of Moffat in the Southern Uplands, celebrating hill farming traditions and Dumfries and Galloway livestock with a strong local community spirit."
Moffat Show
"A celebration of Scotland's last remaining wild and native oyster bed in Loch Ryan, with celebrity chef demos, the Scottish Oyster Shucking Championships, live music and a vast oyster bar on Stranraer Harbour."
Stranraer Oyster Festival
"Scotland's National Book Town hosts its 25th festival across ten days and 200 events in this Galloway village of fifteen bookshops, where authors, musicians and artists fill the town hall, bookshops and gardens with literature, music and theatre."
Wigtown Book Festival
"The Dumfriesshire ploughing match rotates between farms in the Nith valley and the surrounding upland country each autumn, where the deep red sandstone soils and the wide skies of southwest Scotland give the competition its own distinct and unhurried character."
Dumfriesshire Ploughing Match
"A not for profit autumn gathering in a Galloway market town that champions young traditional musicians with concerts, sessions and dancing at a converted bank turned arts centre."
Autumn Trad Festival
"Annan's traditional boundary-riding custom sees a mounted procession ride the ancient marches of this Solway coast burgh, upholding one of Dumfriesshire's oldest civic ceremonies."
Annan Riding of the Marches
"One of Scotland's oldest music festivals brings Gaelic nights, ceilidhs, pipe bands and distillery tours to a remote Kintyre town at the road's very end."
Mull of Kintyre Music Festival
"One of Scotland's most distinctive gatherings, the Lonach sees kilted clansmen march twelve miles carrying pikes before the Highland Games begin at Bellabeg in the upper Don valley."
Lonach Highland and Friendly Society Gathering
"Four days of traditional music on an Hebridean island reachable only by ferry, workshops, open sessions, ceilidhs in the island hall, and the Atlantic on all four sides."
Ceol Cholasa: Colonsay Folk Festival
Villagly Award · Hardest to Reach"Three days in a Black Isle village near Inverness where the sessions run late and the Moray Firth catches the September light outside, a small Highland folk festival doing exactly what it promised."
Ardersier Folk Festival
"On a remote Hebridean island of more deer than people, a village hall and marquee fill with trad sessions, ceilidhs, step dancing and a samba procession."
Jura Music Festival
"Competitors from across the world converge on the Cairngorm village of Carrbridge to contest the Golden Spurtle trophy each October, cooking traditional porridge and open specialty oat dishes to a panel of judges in the village hall while the birch woods outside are turning the first rust of autumn."
World Porridge Making Championship
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