Beam me up, Scotland: a journey into outer space in Dumfries and Galloway

The prima warms my look arsenic I intermission betwixt the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies to regard astatine the rolling hills of Dumfries and Galloway beyond. I americium not, amazingly enough, successful outer space. I’m astatine the Crawick Multiverse, a cosmos-themed onshore creation installation successful the southbound of Scotland that was built connected the tract of an aged open-cast ember excavation and is celebrating its tenth day this year.

The galaxies present are huge, spiralling mounds of earth, their perimeters reaching retired towards 1 different but ne'er rather touching.

“These galaxies are dilatory moving towards each other, and yet they’ll collide,” says Gillian Khosla, seat of the Crawick Multiverse Trust. “When that happens, it volition beryllium the extremity of our universe.” Thankfully, we’ve got a fewer cardinal years until then.

We stroll astir the grounds and ticker arsenic visitors ascent the mounds, looping astir the spirals to scope the sandstone boulders connected top. Parents are chased by kids, who are little funny successful the cosmological ideas of the creation than the information it happens to treble up alternatively good arsenic an obstacle course.

The northbound to southbound avenue is lined with hundreds of stones salvaged from the aged open-face ember face. Photograph: Stuart Kenny

“We’re unfastened to everybody’s mode of looking astatine it,” laughs Caroline McMillan, a section husbandman and Crawick Multiverse trustee, who joins america for the walk. “It tin beryllium an artsy thing, oregon it tin beryllium a bully spot to travel for a java – oregon to rotation down immoderate hills with your kids.”

The ember excavation that erstwhile operated present was unopen and abandoned successful the 1980s, when the “black gold” ran out. The onshore is owned by the Duke of Buccleuch – 1 of Scotland’s largest landowners. In 2005, helium invited the precocious onshore creator Charles Jencks to alteration it.

“It was a depleted site,” says Khosla. “Everything was removed that was worthy wealth and thing was left. What open-cast ember mining tended to bash was take, take, take; and what we’re trying to bash present is adhd – adhd interest, diversity, quality and adhd worth to the community.”

McMillan lived successful a location overlooking the tract for overmuch of the development. “It was grey and uninteresting,” she says. “Now it’s greenish and there’s a batch much biodiversity – ponds and dragonflies. It’s created jobs and it’s determination radical bring radical now; household and friends.”

A presumption of the Northern Lights from Crawick Multiverse. Photograph: Mike Bolam

The installation was built with existing materials – sandstone boulders were transformed into planets and achromatic holes. At the centre is simply a 400-metre avenue lined with hundreds of stones connected a northbound to southbound bearing, starring to a cardinal amphitheatre that hosts concerts successful summer.

Above it all, the Belvedere viewpoint offers sweeping 360-degree vistas of this eclectic 22-hectare (55-acre) site, wherever megaliths airs cosmological conundrums amid the farmland and hills of the Nith valley.

“Charles wanted to marque this a spot radical would travel to from each implicit the world, and we’re starting to spell down that way now,” says McMillan.

It’s a Saturday morning, and families tally among superclusters and ascent connected rocky comets. This remains a little-visited portion of Scotland, contempt its beauty, which is peculiarly evident successful aboriginal spring, with the prima shining and daffodils disrupting the greenery. Some aged ember bings (piles of discarded rocks) are inactive disposable beyond the bound walls, though digging ended decades ago.

I proceed my creator voyage astatine A’ the Airts, a assemblage creation centre and cafe successful the historical municipality of Sanquhar, conscionable minutes from the Crawick Multiverse. Andy Williamson, seat of the centre, is primitively from the neighbouring parish of Kirkconnel. Decades ago, similar galore successful the section area, helium worked astatine the Fauldhead colliery successful Kirkconnel, which astatine the clip was the largest pit successful Dumfriesshire. In Sanquhar and Kirkconnel, thousands erstwhile relied connected the pits to gain their living. The closure of the mines had a profound interaction here, inactive felt today.

The north-south avenue leads to the amphitheatre, which hosts concerts successful the summer. Photograph: Mike Bolam

“It was devastating,” says Williamson. “In its heyday, Kirkconnel had a colonisation of astir 5,000 oregon 6,000. It’s down to possibly 2,000 now. The colony ne'er recovered.”

A’ the Airts has a engaged programme of music, movie and poesy – immoderate of it inspired by that mining bequest – arsenic good arsenic workshops connected quilting, pottery and the distinctive Sanquhar knitting pattern. “I deliberation 1 of the redeeming features of a mining colony anyplace is the assemblage spirit,” Williamson says. “That’s inactive applicable here. Everybody pulls together.” Green shoots sprout from mined land.

Sanquhar is simply a picturesque municipality with a agelong history. On the borderline is the ruin of a 13th-century castle wherever Scotland’s nationalist leader William Wallace is said to person battled the English and Robert the Bruce is besides believed to person visited. The writer Rabbie Burns frequented the municipality successful the 1780s, often staying the night. Sanquhar is besides location to the oldest moving station bureau successful the world, established successful 1712.

The communicative of specified Scottish legends is told astatine the Sanquhar Tolbooth Museum, which is to beryllium recovered successful an 18th-century baroque gathering connected the precocious thoroughfare that besides houses aged Davy lamps and mining pickaxes.

The historical municipality of Sanquhar, which boasts the world’s oldest moving station office. Photograph: Duncan Ireland

Today, determination are caller paths starring to Sanquhar Castle, caller play parks and expanding tourism. “It’s each astir making the spot a spot amended for the adjacent generation,” says Lisa Black of the Sanquhar Enterprise. “That means something.”

I walk a comfy nighttime astatine the Nithsdale hotel earlier continuing my travel connected the Southern Upland Way – a hiking way moving 214 miles, coast-to-coast crossed the southbound of Scotland.

The way turned 40 past twelvemonth and marked that day with sculpted mode markers, which were installed astatine the commencement and extremity of the three sections (western, mediate and eastern) that marque up the trail.

Sanquhar marks the extremity of the occidental Spirit of Galloway conception and the opening of The Big Hills conception done the centre of Scotland. I’m walking the 8 miles to Wanlockhead, the highest colony successful Scotland and location to the Museum of Lead Mining, which offers the lone underground excavation circuit successful Scotland.

It is early, and I travel a workplace roadworthy steeply retired of Sanquhar arsenic a dawn chorus of opus thrushes, blackbirds, robins and wrens sing to invited successful the day. A brace of curlews walk overhead arsenic I transverse rough, scenic moorland, and the prima dilatory rises implicit the Nith vale down me.

Crawick Multiverse costs £8.50 for an adult time pass, £5 for five to 16-year-olds, free for under-fives, and £25 for families, crawickmultiverse.co.uk. Single rooms astatine Nithsdale Hotel from £69, doubles and household country from £72, nithsdalehotel.com. Support was provided by South of Scotland Destination Alliance. More details from Scotland Starts Here