Ardwell (from

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

''Àrd Bhaile'' meaning "high

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

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

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

. It lies on the

shore A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

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. Bombing r ...

in the southern part of the

Rhins of Galloway gd, Na Rannaibh , photo = File:Luce Bay.jpg , photo_width = , photo_alt = , photo_caption = Looking south over the Rhins of Galloway towards Luce Bay , map = UK Scotland , map_width = ...

. The A716 road to

Drummore Drummore (; (from 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 Kirkmaiden and ...

or the

Mull of Galloway The Mull of Galloway ( gd, Maol nan Gall, ; ) is the southernmost point of Scotland. It is situated in Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, at the end of the Rhins of Galloway peninsula. The Mull has one of the last remaining sections of natur ...

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, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

; 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

McCulloch McCulloch is a Scottish surname. It's a variation of the Northern Irish surname McCullough. It's commonly found in Galloway. Notable people with the surname include: *Alan McCulloch (politician), New Zealand politician *Alan McLeod McCulloch ( ...

s, who formerly held Ardwell.,Ardwell
at Mull of Galloway Stoneykirk,

Rhinns gd, Na Rannaibh , photo = File:Luce Bay.jpg , photo_width = , photo_alt = , photo_caption = Looking south over the Rhins of Galloway towards Luce Bay , map = UK Scotland , map_width = ...

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

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

broch A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy. Origin ...

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