20-Oct-2001 -- With my first confluence at Gretna only achieving the status of ‘attempted’, I was keen to bag another, more successful one, as soon as possible.

From the OS map I could see that this confluence was only a few metres from a farmhouse in Dumfries and Galloway, an area of Scotland which was heavily affected by the Foot and Mouth outbreak in the summer of 2001 and up until recently had probably been closed to the public. It was now open and conveniently accessible from the main road.

My wife and I were spending the weekend at her parent’s house in Kippford, a small village on the Solway coast only 13 miles from the confluence. Free accommodation and food and someone to look after the kids!

It was a mild but dreich October day as we set off by car to the confluence. It looked all too easy on paper, a short drive and a wee walk. But after the disappointment at Gretna, I was ready for anything. Maybe the field had been turned into a theme park? Maybe the field was a huge rainfilled puddle? But no, when we arrived it was just as I expected, a small field beside a farm with some coos (cows, to non-Scots). On entering the farm we checked with the owner if he would allow two nutters to climb into his field with their GPS and camera to take some photographs.

The spot looks over the farmer’s house to the North, Coos to the East, Coos to the South and Loch Ken to the West. Success at last, not just that I’d been to a confluence but that I’d taken Lynn, my wife, and quite possibly convinced her that visiting confluences is not such a mad thing to do after all.

My thanks to Mr Porteous the farmer, and Ron and Joyce for looking after the kids (the young ones, not the thirty something ones!).