Email Barrasgate House Bed and Breakfast enquiries & reservations:
bookscotland@madbookings.com
Other places to stay in and around Gretna
A traditional friendly welcome awaits you at our family home, Barrasgate
House Bed and Breakfast, Gretna Green, a converted farm croft re-built
at the turn of the nineteenth century.
The proprietors, Joan and Alan Graham, aim to ensure that their guests have a relaxing stay in the countryside of the English/Scottish border.
Barrasgate House Accommodation
All of our rooms are fully modernized with en-suite bathrooms with tea
and coffee making facilities, free Wi-Fi internet connection and television.
Central heated throughout.
All guest bed rooms are NO SMOKING all have en-suite facilities and are
situated on the ground and first floor.
They are fitted with full central heating, 26" LCD TV, clock radio freeview television, Wi-Fi internet connection, clock radio, hair dryer and tea & coffee making facilities.
To assure you of a restful nights sleep the beds are dressed with the finest cotton sheets and pillow cases. All bedrooms are at least 100 feet from the nearest road, and all windows are double glazed. All in all one of the quietest and most comfortable guest houses in our area.
Breakfast
We serve a traditional Scottish breakfast,using locally produced ingredients,
such as locally cured bacon, and local Cumberland sausage or Scottish
haggis, wherever possible.
Typically the cooked breakfast consists of: bacon, Cumberland sausage , mushrooms and tomatoes and an egg .poached, boiled, scrambled or fried. Alternative to a fried breakfast is omelet.
To accompany this we serve a variety of cereals or porridge; fresh fruit; yogurts; our own home made jams and preserves and toast. We make our own jams, preserves.
To drink: Green tea, Earl Grey tea, De-caff tea, or a fresh Ground Coffee, or Hot chocolate, hot or cold milk, fruit juice. We also have a small selection of herb teas.
We can also serve almost anything else that takes your fancy, with a little notice. Breakfast is served between 8.00 and 9.00am but if you require an early start to the day we will do our best to accommodate you, please ask.
Naturally, there are also vegetarian alternatives to the meat dishes on the menu. We will also do our best to cater for any special dietary requirements, but please give us as much notice as possible to ensure your needs are met.
A daily news paper is available if ordered when you arrive for your stay with us.
Packed Lunches
If you are setting out on a day of fishing, bird watching, or any other
activity, we will be happy to prepare a packed lunch for you, so there
is no need to leave your activity to get lunch. The contents on the packed
lunch is very much up to your preferences, just let us know the day before
what you would like, and it will be ready to take with you in the morning.
Things to do
There is lots to do in Dumfries and Galloway and Cumbria. Whether it’s
out-door pursuits, history and heritage, or just relaxing, that you are
after, there’s lots on offer. Here are some suggestions… My
own interest and hobby is sailing on the Solway and Irish Sea I keep a
boat further down the Firth.
Many people who come to this area do so to get married. In fact, Gretna Green, which is only a few minutes drive away from Barrasgate,could claim to be the most famous marriage destination in the world.
Even for those who do not want to tie the knot just at the moment there is lots to do in Gretna Green. A visit to the World Famous Old Blacksmith’s shop, which has recently been awarded a prestigious tourism prize, is recommended.
Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway are famous for their fishing .The River Esk, which is only a few minutes drive away, well known for its salmon fishing.
The Solway Firth is of national importance for its bird life and other wildlife. The flats and marshes of the Upper Solway Firth form one of the largest continuous areas of inter tidal habitat in Britain. The coastline is a site of national and international importance for wintering wildfowl and wading birds.
Some of the birds to be seen include Barnacle geese, Pink-footed Geese, Curlew, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Peregrine Falcon, Widgeon, Pintail, Scaup, Whooper Swan, Oystercatcher, Knot, and Bar-tailed Godwit. It also has important colonies of Natterjack Toad, Great Crested Newt, invertebrates and rare plants.
There is also plenty of wildlife inland. You could try out these around nearby Talkin Tarn, to spot some of the wildlife.
We are close to the National Cycle network and The 7 Stanes Forest bike tracks .
The Festival Arena is coming back; last year it played host to some of the biggest names in the business – Katherine Jenkins, Status Quo and N-Dubz. It was a complete success and topped by an absolutely cracking performance of precision and beauty by the Red Arrows. And I’ll let you in on a little secret – this year’s Festival Arena is going to be even better!
The Border reivers were notorious cattle thieves and outlaws, who robbed both the English and the Scots. The Grahams (our ancestors) were one of the most infamous of the families. You can find out more about the reivers, and visit their impressive fortresses, known as Pele Towers, on the Border Reivers Trail.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot… Robert Burns is Scotland’s best known poet and he lived in Dumfries and Galloway. There are more details about him and places to visit relating to him.
The Lake District National Park is possibly one of the most beautiful areas of countryside in the world. It has inspired many poets and painters, Wordsworth and J M W Turner, for example, to some of there finest work. It has some fine hill walking and climbing terrain, a wealth of villages and towns to explore and much more besides.
A tourist attraction that has only recently opened is the Reghed Discovery Centre. Rheged was the ancient Celtic name for Cumbria. You can find out more about the Celts there.
Hadrian's Wall
The area is steeped in the history of the bloody border warfare of past
centuries. The house is built on the site of the medieval Battle of Solway
Moss, and is right in the heart of the lands of the Border Reivers, who
were notorious thieves and cattle rustlers.
Today, however, border relations are much improved, and the countryside in which the house is situated is quiet, broad leaf woodland and fields.
Cyclists welcome
There is a wide range of activities in the surrounding area. The house
is near to two border rivers, the Sark and the Esk, famous for their fishing
, particularly salmon. The area is popular with cyclists, exploring The
Border forest trails, and the house is close to the National Cycle Network
route 7.
Border cycle trails
The Solway Coast is only a few miles away. Each year thousands of birds
over winter here on their journey south, and there are opportunities to
see thousands of birds that are only a rare sight in other parts of the
British Isles.
Gretna Green is about a mile away, famous for the runaway weddings that are carried out there. In years gone by it was possible for couples eloping from England to get married at the age of sixteen in Scotland, without the permission of their parents.
There are still many thousands of couples taking their vows for each other every year to this day, at the most famous marriage location in the world. The romantic Old Smiddy (Blacksmith's), where couples were married over the anvil, is well worth a visit.
DIRECTIONS
Situated near the border on the Old Coaching Road Gretna Green to Longtown,
one mile from the M74 motorway to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Directions to
find us:- from the South at Junction 45 on the M6 or junction 22 from
the North on the M74.
Road:
From the south: Take the number 45 junction off the M6,
sign posted Gretna and Longtown A6071. Turn right, following the signs
for Longtown. Follow this road for about a mile, and take the second junction
on the left, for Gretna Green and Springfield. Our house is the first
on the left.
From the north:
Leave the M74 at the junction22 signposted Gretna Green and Longtown.
At the first roundabout go straight on, following the signs for Longtown,
and at the second roundabout turn right, continuing to follow the Longtown
signs. Continue up this road for about one and a half miles, past a farm
and some bungalows, our house is on the right side of the road.
From The A7 near Longtown follow A6071 West bound towards Gretna after 2miles turn right at sign post to Gretna Green and Springfield Barrasgate House is 600 yards on the Left side of the road.
By rail:
There is a railway station in Gretna Green 2miles
By air:
The nearest airports are Newcastle 60 miles and Glasgow 110 miles and
Edinburgh 95 miles Manchester 140 miles about an 2 hour's drive to us
Email Barrasgate House Bed and Breakfast enquiries & reservations:
bookscotland@madbookings.com
