Our hearts at Dunskey are inextricably tied to the most postcard-perfect coastal village on this side of the world: Portpatrick. Once a glamorous destination for aristocrats and up-and-coming flaneurs, the village retains a certain old-world vibe that is both folksy and mythical.
Overlooked by the Dunskey Castle Ruins at one end of the village, the lore of medieval lords and kings set the scene with ancient mysteries. Indeed, how the castle was built, and to oil which political wheels under the reign of King Edward 1, remain debatable. The two watchtowers of Dunskey Castle stand upon this isolated cliff, the vestige of their windows facing the tempest-tossed Irish seas. Tragedy befell here in the 1500s, when a babe slipped the nursemaid’s arms and tumbled to the sea below, and her apparition haunts these misty walls ever since.
The village extends to the foot of the Southern Upland Way, where the adventurous can clamber atop the cliff, and take in the most soaring and glorious view of the coast and rolling hills. The path takes you to Laird’s Bay at Dunskey Estate, where we recently discovered two standing stones, reminiscent of those at StoneHenge, marking bygone rituals that we can only dare to imagine.
