9 Best Sights in Dumfries, The Borders and the Southwest

When he died in 1796, Robert Burns was buried in a modest grave in St. Michael's Churchyard. English poet William Wordsworth, visiting a few years later, was horrified by the small gravestone and raised money to build the much grander monument that stands there today.

A camera obscura is essentially a huge reflecting mirror that projects an extraordinarily clear panoramic view of the surrounding countryside onto an internal wall. The one at the Dumfries Museum, which claims to be the oldest in the world, is housed in the old Windmill Tower, built in 1836. The museum itself covers the culture and daily life of the people living in the Dumfries and Galloway region from the earliest times.

Poet Robert Burns spent quite a lot of time at the Globe Inn, where he frequently fell asleep in the tack room beside the stables; today it's still an active pub where you can eat and drink. Burns later graduated to the upstairs bedroom where he slept with Anna Park, and scratched some lines of poetry on the window. The room is preserved (or at least partly re-created), and there are now organized tours of the room that leave from the pub three times a day, Tuesday through Saturday. Just beware, if you choose to sit in Burns's chair in the bar, tradition has it that you have to buy a round for the whole pub.

With galleries hosting changing exhibits of Scottish art mostly from the 1840s to today, Gracefield Arts Centre also has a well-stocked crafts shop. A café serves lunch and snacks.

The little community of Kirkbean is the backdrop for the bright-green landscape of the Arbigland Estate; in a cottage here, now the John Paul Jones Museum, John Paul (1747–92), the son of an estate gardener, was born. He eventually left Scotland, added "Jones" to his name, and became the founder of the U.S. Navy. The cottage where he was born is furnished as it would have been when he was a boy. There is an informative video, which you watch in a reconstruction of his captain's cabin. Jones returned to raid the coastline of his native country in 1778, an exploit recounted in an adjoining visitor center.

Writer J. M. Barrie was a regular visitor to the Gordon family's grand Edwardian home at Moat Brae. The stories he told their children would eventually go on to become the tale of Peter Pan, and the house's garden was the inspiration for Neverland. Today the garden has a replica of Captain Hook's ship, where kids can play. After coming perilously close to demolition, the house was saved and restored to its original state over several years, and the on-site center has been conceived as a National Storytelling Centre rather than simply a historical museum. It's meant to be a place where today's children can exercise their own imaginations. In the children's bedroom, Tinker Bell flies around the walls, and you can try to catch her.

Not surprisingly, Dumfries has its own Robert Burns Centre, housed in a sturdy 18th-century former mill overlooking the River Nith. The extensive yet compact exhibition commemorates Burns's last years in Dumfries. The center has an audiovisual program; it also houses Dumfries's only cinema. Tours of the center are available, but should be booked in advance.

Poet Robert Burns (1759–96) lived here, on what was then called Mill Street, for the last three years of his life, when his salary from the customs service allowed him to improve his living standards. Many distinguished writers of the day visited him here, including William Wordsworth. The house contains some of his writings and letters, a few pieces of furniture, and some family memorabilia.

At the center of the village of New Abbey are the impressive red-tinted, roofless remains of Sweetheart Abbey, founded in 1273 by the Lady of Galloway Devorgilla (1210-90), who, it is said, kept her dead husband's heart in a tiny casket she carried everywhere. After she died, she was laid to rest in the Abbey with the casket resting on her breast. The couple's son John Balliol (1249–1315) was the puppet king installed in Scotland by Edward of England when the latter claimed sovereignty over Scotland. After John's appointment the Scots gave him a scathing nickname that would stay with him for the rest of his life: Toom Tabard (Empty Shirt). Currently the  abbey is closed for restoration, but you can still view it from afar.