Turn the castle dining room into your own fine-dining restaurant with Chef Stefano of Shardana Catering. Seasonal, multi-course menus cost around ~£60 per guest (excluding drinks), and a sommelier service is available on request.

Shardana Catering Website ›
✉️ [email protected] | 📞 +44 7955 523 069

A leisurely 5 minute walk from the castle brings you to the Jardine Hall Beat on the River Annan. 

Because access depends on daily estate bookings, rods must be arranged last-minute through your host, Jack. Just text or call once your stay is confirmed and we’ll secure availability and pricing.

Need expert help? Local ghillie Michael Cairns (📞 +44 7871 771 361) offers half-day (£80) and full-day (£150) guiding, tackle advice, and casting tuition.

If you prefer to lock plans in early, reserve the Applegarth Beat a few hundred metres upstream. 

Day tickets start at £10 and can be booked in advance via FishPal.

Book Applegarth Beat on FishPal ›

Need expert help? Local ghillie Michael Cairns (📞 +44 7871 771 361) offers half-day (£80) and full-day (£150) guiding, tackle advice, and casting tuition.

Test your aim 30 minutes by car from the castle at Westlands, where automated traps and friendly instructors cater to all skill levels. 

Packages start around £50, and there are fly-fishing ponds onsite if you fancy a change of pace.

Visit Westlands Country Park ›
📞 +44 1461 700 386 | ✉️ [email protected]

A scenic 15-minute drive from the castle takes you to southwest Scotland’s only craft rum producer, Ninefold Distillery, on the Dormont Estate. 

Owner-distiller Dr Kit Carruthers leads a 1½-hour behind-the-scenes tour of the stillhouse and barrel store, ending with a tasting of 4–6 rums (drivers get take-home drams). 

Tours are advance-booking only and cost £20 per adult / £10 ages 12–17.

ninefolddistillery.com

Book a tour ›
📞 +44 1387 840 116 | ✉️ [email protected]

Tip: pick up a bottle of their award-winning barrel-aged rum to enjoy back in the Great Hall after dinner.

If whisky is more your tipple, a relaxed ~ 30-minute drive south-east of the castle brings you to historic Annandale Distillery (founded 1836, reborn 2014) on the outskirts of Annan. Three guided options run daily:

• Classic Tour – 1 hour, four dram tastings, souvenir snifter & lanyard – £25

• 1836 Heritage Tour – 2 hours, deeper dive into the distillery’s Victorian past – £50

• Whisky Masterclass – 45 min tutored tasting of five single-cask expressions – £35

After your tour, refuel in the on-site Maltings Coffee Shop for homemade soups, scones and light lunches before browsing the award-winning single cask bottlings in the shop. 

annandaledistillery.com

Book a tour ›
📞 +44 1461 207 817 | ✉️ [email protected]

A breezy 15-minute drive (≈ 10 miles) lands you at community-owned Castle Loch in Lochmaben—part Local Nature Reserve, Ramsar wetland and Special Protection Area. A level 3-mile loop path circles the water, passing the 13th-century ruins of Lochmaben Castle and more than 20 hand-carved figures on the woodland Sculpture Trail.

Why go

• Bird & Wildlife Hides – One lakeside hide, an accessible viewing deck at Vendace Bay and a car-park platform offer year-round sightings of great-crested grebe, wintering geese and even otters that patrol the reed-edge.
• Premier Coarse Fishing – Holder of Scotland’s record tench and bream, the loch runs on a day-permit system (book via castlelochfishery.co.uk before casting).
• On-the-Water Fun – Wild-swimming, kayaking and canoe launches are welcome; easiest entry is from the bowls/tennis-club car park (check for summer algae alerts).
• Family Trails & Forest School – Free scavenger-hunt and quiz sheets keep younger explorers busy, while two forest-school clearings invite den-building and outdoor learning.

Castle Loch website ›
📞 +44 7792 142 446 | ✉️ [email protected] (wildlife records & general enquiries)

A friendly par-67 parkland course laid out by James Braid, just ~ 10 minutes’ drive south of the castle. 

Visitors are welcome seven days a week, with green-fee rounds from £25 mid-week / £30 weekend and buggies available for hire.

Lockerbie GC website ›

📞 +44 1576 203 363 | ✉️ [email protected]

For a sterner seaside test, on the Solway Firth, ~ 30 minutes’ drive away. 

Visitor green fees range from £40 twilight to £75 at weekends, with day tickets and buggy hire available.

Powfoot GC website ›

📞 +44 1461 204 100 | ✉️ [email protected]

Step into Scotland’s story with the only VisitScotland-rated ★★★★★ tour company in the South of Scotland solwaytours.co.uk. Historian-guides Lesley Watson and Mark Turner design bespoke, small-group itineraries (up to 6 guests) that depart right from Spedlins Castle or any local pick-up point. Popular Dumfries-and-Galloway routes include:

• Robert Burns Trail – taverns, farms and mausoleums linked to the national bard.

• Robert the Bruce & Medieval Castles – Bruce’s birthplace at Turnberry, Drumlanrig, Caerlaverock and more.

• Heroes & Heroines / WWI Stories – unsung local legends and front-line sites.

• Cradle of Christianity – Whithorn Priory, St Ninian’s Cave and Isle of Whithorn.

Good to know

• Driving time: ~ 30 min / 11 mi to Solway Tours’ Dumfries base

• Price guide: Day tours from £500 per vehicle (up to six guests); themed packages usually £650–£750 depending on distance and admissions 

• Fully bespoke: Mix & match sights, ancestry research, photography stops or distillery add-ons.

• Explore tour options ›

A postcard-pretty 20-minute drive west of the castle drops you into one of Britain’s largest forests—also home to 7stanes Ae, a world-class mountain-bike hub. Way-marked walking routes share the trailhead with graded single-track that runs from family-friendly loops to full-on downhill. forestryandland.gov.scot

Trailhead facilities

• Pay-and-display Naze car-park (card/coins) with toilets and showers. forestryandland.gov.scot

• Ae Bike Shop & Café – hire, repairs, spares, barista coffee & cakes.

A family favourite just ~ 25 minutes by car from the castle. Open all year, its huge indoor soft-play barn keeps kids busy whatever the weather, while the award-winning outdoor park (Apr – Oct) adds new attractions such as a giant castle climbing frame with aerial glider, 12-hole mini-golf, a cresta run and bumper-boat lagoon. 
Expect trampolines, crazy-golf, pedal & electric karts, a vast sandpit and friendly farm animals from llamas to wallabies.

Plan your visit ›

📞 +44 1387 254 445 | ✉️ [email protected]

Set beneath Mabie Forest with views over the Solway Firth, this 77-hectare working farm is ~ 25 minutes’ drive south-west of the castle (about 21 km). 

Outdoors you’ll find Henry’s Fort climbing towers, pedal go-karts, a sand-play zone, trampolines, aerial runway, tubing runs and a boating lake.

When rain rolls in, dive into the huge covered play-barn packed with rope swings, climbing wall, astro slide and trampolines. 

Daily animal-handling sessions introduce little ones to goats, rabbits, ferrets and rare-breed livestock mabiefarmpark.co.uk.

Book tickets ›
📞 +44 1387 259 666 | Burnside Farm, Mabie, Dumfries DG2 8EZ

Private Minibus Hire – Murray’s Travel

Based in Lockerbie—just ≈ 10 minutes / 6 miles from the castle—Murray’s Travel runs a luxury 8-seat minibus with plenty of luggage space for everything from airport runs and golf days to wedding shuttles and distillery trips. Advance booking is recommended as “our diary is already filling up fast”.

📞 +44 7588 887 980 (call / WhatsApp) | Facebook Messenger: Murray’s Travel facebook.com

Reliable door-to-door rides based in Lockerbie—just ≈ 10 minutes / 6 miles from the castle.

Sandy handles everything from late-night pickups and station runs to airport transfers and wedding shuttles; advance notice is wise for peak-time journeys.

Message on Facebook ›

📞 +44 7851 723 643 | ✉️ [email protected] | 13 Station Road, Lockerbie DG11 2HA