Ardwell (from

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

''Àrd Bhaile'' meaning "high

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

", pronounced as "Ardwell") is a village in the Scottish unitary council area of

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

. It lies on the

shore A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

s of

Luce Bay Luce Bay is a large bay in Wigtownshire in southern Scotland. The bay is 20 miles wide at its mouth and is bounded by the Rhins of Galloway to the west and the Machars to the east. The Scares are rocky islets at the mouth of the bay. Bombi ...

in the southern part of the

Rhins of Galloway The Rhins (or Rhinns) of Galloway is a double-headed peninsula in southwestern Scotland. It takes the form of a hammerhead projecting into the Irish Sea, terminating in the north at Corsewall and Milleur Points and in the south at the Mull of ...

. The A716 road to

Drummore Drummore (; (from Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic ''An Druim Mòr'' meaning "the great ridge") is the southernmost village in Scotland, located at the southern end of the Rhins of Galloway in Dumfries and Galloway: it has two satellite clachans, called ...

or the Mull of Galloway passes through the village. The only other street is Ardwell Park, a street of new houses. The community is served by the nearby Ardwell Church, a small public church with a bell tower, built in 1900–1902. Many of the houses are still owned by Ardwell Estates, and Ardwell House is located around west of the village in the grounds of Ardwell Garden and looking across Ardwell Pond. In the grounds of Ardwell House, on a ridge above the road, are the remains of a medieval

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or Bailey (castle), bailey, surrounded by a protective Rampart (fortificati ...

; the castle bailey may have stood to the north. In addition, south of the church are the ruins of Killaser Castle, the ancestral home of the McCullochs, who formerly held Ardwell.,Ardwell
at Mull of Galloway Stoneykirk,

Rhinns The Rhins (or Rhinns) of Galloway is a double-headed peninsula in southwestern Scotland. It takes the form of a hammerhead projecting into the Irish Sea, terminating in the north at Corsewall Point, Corsewall and Milleur Points and in the south ...

Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the Counties of Scotland, historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an counties of Scotland, administrative county used for ...

. Near High Ardwell, on the other side of the peninsula, are the remains of Doon Castle, the best example of an Iron Age

broch In archaeology, a broch is an British Iron Age, Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Brochs are round ...

in Dumfries and Galloway. Ardwell used to hold the Leek Fair, where plants were sold.

Ardwell Gardens

Ardwell Gardens is a 342 ha (970 acres) garden surrounding the 18th-century Ardwell House. It has a

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...

, and a large pond which has ducks and swans with an approximately half-hour walk round it. There is also access to Ardwell church (to the west) and Ardwell village (to the east) with a beach and boat shop.

Logan Botanic Garden

Logan Botanic Garden, a branch of the

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

, is by road from Ardwell. Logan's mild climate allows a variety of exotic plants to grow outdoors.Logan Botanic Garden
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. There are many beautiful plants which can be found in few other gardens in Britain. It has a

woodland garden A woodland garden is a garden or section of a garden that includes large trees and is laid out so as to appear as more or less natural woodland, though it is often actually an artificial creation. Typically it includes plantings of flowering shrub ...

, and a walled garden and a terrace garden with an avenue of Chusan palms.

Gallery

File:Ardwell Church - geograph.org.uk - 215711.jpg, Ardwell Church Image:Ardwellbeach.jpg, Ardwell beach File:Doon Castle Broch, High Ardwell Bay - geograph.org.uk - 137736.jpg, Doon Castle

References

{{authority control Villages in Dumfries and Galloway Places in the Rhins