We were contacted in April by a couple from Florida who wanted help visiting their ancestral family home. They were travelling with another couple and both women from the group were MacLellans, a Scottish Clan which originated from the quiet but vibrant fishing town of Kirkcudbright. It was their dream to make the journey to their ancestral home In Kirkcudbright from Florida and it was our job to make this dream a reality. From first contact we knew that we wanted to do whatever we could to ensure that this group could walk in the footsteps of their ancestors. What made this tour extra special was that the group were on a cruise for their wedding anniversary but were determined to get to MacLellan Castle in the 11 hours window that they had whilst their ship was docked in Greenock over 90 miles from Kirkcudbright.
At Solway Tours we are passionate about creating bespoke tours and celebrating Scotland’s history with both locals and visitors to our Region. Tracing your family history is something very emotional and special. We know from years of experience in taking young people to see where their relatives are buried on the battlefields of World War 1 that tracing your ancestral roots and having the chance to visit these emotive sites is a once in a lifetime trip and something that will provide memories that will last a very long time!
We pride ourselves on our bespoke private guided tours of Scotland , going that extra mile to ensure that we provide a high quality service as well as ensuring that our guests see all that they want to see whilst in our wonderful country. For this very special bespoke tour we collected the group once their ship docked bright and early at 7am from Greenock and we started the journey to Dumfries and Galloway where for 8 hours we had opportunity to share with them some of the Region’s must see sites and more importantly get to share a special moment with them as they explored Mac Lellan Castle, the home of their ancestors. Our communication with guests prior to a tour is something else that we pride ourselves on and through this communication we learnt that two on the trip were retired postmasters! This then altered our itinerary further to of course fit in a stop at Sanqhuar Post Office the oldest post office in the world where through positive relationships we have established with the new post master he opened the post office on the Sunday for our guests to post their MacLellan Castle postcards back to family. There was even a fantastic young piper there to greet them and after posting postcards there we had them safely delivered back to the ship by 5 pm that day ready to continue on with their journey!
There is no better compliment for us than receiving feedback from this group such as it was their “favourite trip” and that they appreciated the “extra planning” we had done for them for this special day. We want to continue to help people tick things off their bucket list, have a trip of lifetime and help them trace the roots of their ancestors! If this is something that you think we can help you with then contact us at beinspired@solwaytours.co.uk. Mark and Lesley