Best food and drink in Galloway

Galloway is a fabulous place to eat and drink good quality local food. Rich pasture, salt marshes and rugged hills support the production of fine cheese, beef  and lamb, not to mention lots and lots of milk. And with 200 miles of coastline, Galloway produces excellent seafood including King Scallops, whelks, lobsters, crabs, wet fish and some of the best smoked salmon in Scotland. If that were not enough, you can wash it all down with local beer and finish with a whisky distilled on the banks of the River Bladnoch, near Wigtown, in the heart of The Machars.

Galloway Smokehouse

Scallops are a speciality in Galloway and across south west Scotland. The Irish Sea is a major scallop fishery and dredgers can be seen tied up all along the Galloway coast, but particularly at Kirkcudbright and the Isle of Whithorn. In the bad weather, we have watched fleets of boats head for shelter at the Isle and the small harbour has been full of craft, jostling for position at the quayside for the battered fishermen to land their catch.

The delicious sweet meat of the King Scallop is something to savour and they are always available at the Galloway Smokehouse. They are delicious cooked in butter, either on their own or with a bit of bacon or chorizo. The Smokehouse also sells cooked crabs and lobsters and a wide variety of wet fish. Regulars on the slab include Lemon Sole, Bream, Salmon, Grey Mullet and Plaice, among much more.

The Smokehouse, located just off the A75 near Creetown, also produces magnificent smoked salmon. Each smokehouse has its own recipe and this one is known for its rich flavour and firm texture. The Galloway Smokehouse cures the fresh salmon in salt, rum and dark syrup before smoking in a kiln, fired by wood from whisky barrels. One of our favourite meals when visiting Galloway is a plate of King Scallops and smoked salmon from the Smokehouse, served with brown bread and butter.

Steven Cronnie Butcher   

Salt marsh lamb is a speciality of The Machars of Galloway. The sheep are left to graze on the marginal, salty land that edges the estuaries in this part of south west Scotland, imbuing the meat with a slightly salty flavour. The lambs are available from July and Steven Cronnie, the butcher in Newton Stewart, is a our supplier when we are up for a visit.

Steven’s shop located near the livestock market is a treasure trove of goodies. As well as lamb, he supplies excellent pork and lovely thick steaks, all locally farmed, which make for a mouth watering barbecue. If you give him a call he will source some game, too. We love Steven’s pies. Often warm from the oven, we smuggle them back to the cottage for an outdoor dinner.

John D Owen Butcher

Owen’s is a shop window for Galloway farmers. His meat is locally sourced and high quality. On many occasions we have returned from walks and cycles in the Galloway Hills, popped in on the cusp of 5pm and picked up a couple of well-deserved rib-eye steaks.

While it is hard to look beyond the steak, Owen’s prepares kebabs and marinades that are brilliant for the barbecue and he bakes his own pies. There is a deli, too, and a good selection of cheese. If you love a pudding, he sells pre-packed sticky toffee pudding and jars of extra sauce.

Buy a lobster in Port William

If you love seafood, then buying a lobster straight off the boat is as good as it gets. Port William fisherman Paul Maguire fishes for whelks, crabs and lobsters across Luce Bay. Most of his catch goes abroad but he will happily sell you some if you get in touch. He is out most days if the weather holds. We leave his mobile phone number in Burnside Cottage so you can call Paul and arrange to meet him on the quayside at the Port when he comes in on the tide. A 1lb is enought for one person, but if there are two of you ask for a two-pounder since it is better value. (Weights aren’t exact of course). We keep a giant pan for cooking lobsters at Burnside Cottage).

Galloway Farmhouse Cheese, Sorbie

Alan and Helen Brown produce award winning cheese that is sold throughout Scotland, but fortunately you can also buy it at their farm shop, near Sorbie.

The Brown’s speciality is cheese is made from their flock of Friesland sheep, which they have been producing for more than 20 years. They also sell cow’s and goat’s milk cheeses as part of their Cairnsmore range.

The couple have a passion for healthy food and sustainable production. Their ewes are only milked once a day, compared with twice at many farms, because they believe it is better for the animals – and the cheese.

The shop is well signposted from the road between Whauphill and Sorbie.

Bladnoch Distillery

Bladnoch is a beautiful distillery, one of just six in lowland Scotland and the most southerly of all of them. It has perched on the banks of the River Bladnoch for more than 200 years, but in recent times the distillery has had a turbulent history, before new owners restored its glories.

Bladnoch became part of the Bell’s whisky empire in the 1980s, passed on to the United Distillers’ Group and closed in the 1990s. However, Bladnoch enjoyed a renaissance in the noughties under the ownership of a Northern Irishman, Raymond Armstrong, who came across the mothballed distillery while on holiday and bought it. The site went back into production, turned out some interesting and enjoyable malt and blends, but closed again in 2014.

The good news is that the distillery is back in production, with a shop and visitors’ centre under the stewardship of the Australian entrepreneurial owner, David Prior. It not only makes great whisky, but it is a lovely place to visit, too.

Sulwath Brewery, Castle Douglas

Sulwath is a microbrewery established in 1996  and since then it has perfected crowd-pleasing brews that are a pleasure to drink. The brewery is open to visitors and does tours by appointment. Sulwath, named after the Solway Firth, was listed among the 15 Best Breweries to Visit in Britain in The Daily Telegraph in 2017. There is a pub on site. Sulwath beers are on sale throughout Galloway

G&C Galloway, Whithorn

We love this shop. Based half way up Main Street in Whithorn, G&C Galloway is an Aladdin’s cave of groceries. There are chain grocery stores in The Machars, including in Port William, which are very convenient and very good, but Galloway’s has as many lines as Sainsbury’s and the most helpful staff in Britain. If the mood takes you to cook Thai, Asian, Italian or you just need a fix of Cream O’Galloway ice cream, G&C Galloway is the place to go. And they sell those Scottish potato pancakes, which are delicious at breakfast, as well as local bacon, frozen meat and vegetables.