PROPOSED TASS SHORT BREAK TO KIRKCUDBRIGHT  WEDNESDAY 24TH – FRIDAY 26TH  
JULY 2024

Main Contact: Lynne  Austin (lynne.roger@btinternet.com)
Duration: 2 Nights/3 Days
Allocation: 5 Singles & 25 Double/Twin Rooms
Hotel: The Cairndale Hotel & Leisure Club 3*
This family-run Victorian-style hotel is in Dumfries town centre. Classic  
rooms with wood furnishings all have en suite bathrooms, TVs and free  
Wi-Fi, plus tea and coffeemaking facilities. A full Scottish breakfast is  
included. There's a spa offering beauty and holistic treatments and guests  
have free access to the leisure club, which has an indoor pool and a  
fitness room. This hotel has a lift.
 

HOLIDAY INCLUDES
• 2 Nights Dinner, Bed & Breakfast at The Cairndale Hotel
• Threave Garden & Estate Entry
• Dumfries House- Tour (60 mins approx.)
 

ITINERARY
Day 1- Departing from your designated pick-up point (Fochabers /Elgin) in  
the morning  and travelling
to The Cairndale Hotel and Leisure Club for 2 nights stay dinner, bed and  
breakfast.

Day 2- Our excursion today takes us to Threave Gardens for the morning.  
Threave Gardenand Estate is a series of gardens owned and managed by the National Trust  
for Scotland,located near Castle Douglas in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire  
in Dumfries andGalloway region of Scotland. You will have an opportunity to take light   
refreshments whilst visiting the gardens. At noon we will take the short drive to  
Kirkcudbright for a free afternoon .

At your leisure you can visit the Raeburn Exhibition at the Art Gallery,  
Broughton House and Gardens
or any of the other places of interest in the town . Late afternoon we  
return to the Hotel.

Day 3- After a leisurely breakfast we depart our hotel and head to  
Dumfries House.
Dumfries House is a Palladian country house in Ayrshire. You will enjoy a  
tour around the
house and have some time to explore it surroundings. We then depart and  
head for home.

Cost Per Person: (Double/Twin Sharing): £289pp
Cost for Single Room: £389pp
*Please be aware this quote is based on a minimum of 30 persons   
travelling in the group
 

What a fantastic morning we had at Darnaway Castle.  We were lucky enough to have John Dougal Stuart the 21st Earl of Moray as our tour guide.

Lord Moray gave over 2 hours of his time with his remarkable recall of dates, events and people from the 14th century to present day.  We walked through the entry hall, dining room, morning room and Randolph’s Hall. The paintings, armaments, furniture, ornaments and, perhaps most impressive of all, the fantastic roof within the great hall were captivating.  Our group of 18 society members and friends was left awestruck by the Scottish royal history not taught in school or found in books!  

A huge thanks to the Earl and his family for opening the doors to their home and sharing the history and treasures within it.

 (Details to follow)

The architect

V&A Dundee was designed by renowned award-winning Japanese architects Kengo Kuma & Associates, following an international competition, and is Kuma’s first building in the UK. Considered by many as the quintessential Japanese architect of today, Kuma is also designing the stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Kuma’s vision for V&A Dundee is that it will be a welcoming space for everyone to visit, enjoy and socialise in – a 'living room for the city' – and a way of reconnecting the city to its historic River Tay waterfront. Along with V&A Dundee, Kuma is involved in a number of large, ongoing projects, including arts centres in Besançon and Granada.

The building

Curving concrete walls (there are no straight external walls) hold 2,500 pre-cast rough stone panels, weighing up to 3000 kg each and spanning up to 4m wide, to create the appearance of a Scottish cliff face. There are 21 separate wall sections. V&A Dundee is an impressive 8,000m² building, with 1,650m² of gallery space.

After a Low and Zero Carbon Technologies study was undertaken in 2011 as part of the project’s BREEAM obligation to identify the most appropriate form of renewable energy for the building, geothermal energy was identified as the solution.

Thirty 200-metre deep bore holes form part of this system for the heating and cooling of the building, supplemented by air source heat pumps on the roof. These provide direct renewable energy for the museum, with 800,000 kWh/annum of heating and 500,000 kWh/annum of cooling.

Construction of the building is being led by Dundee City Council, with project management from Turner & Townsend. The total cost of design, construction and fit-out is £80.11m.

The waterfront

Beyond its curved walls, V&A Dundee is reconnecting the city with its beautiful and historic riverside. The museum is at the heart of a £1 billion waterfront transformation, an ambitious 30-year project that is propelling the city towards an improved future.

We arranged a short tour to Ayrshire with Heritage Group Travel from 12-15 May. This visit took us to Stirling Castle, New Lanark Mills Heritage Village, Culzean Castle, Dumfries House, Drumlanrigg Castle and Blair Atholl Castle. The guided tours were absolutely first class and the sun shone every day. The views of Arran  and Ailsa Craig were a bonus. All in all a very enjoyable and informative trip.