Pillars of Hercules

There is a rustic feel about the wooden building, which the Shop and Café share. The veranda is my preferred area to sit with its Perspex-type roof and wooden end-wall covered with flyers advertising everything from Tai Chai to fiddle lessons and aromatherapy to the "Fine Arts Cooperative". Bamboo chimes gently sound in the breeze, a cat brushes past your legs and a dog rushes out to greet the postal van while across the track turkeys scratch around in the earth. All this serves to remind you that the Pillars of Hercules is a working organic farm, started by Bruce Bennett in 1983.

No one quite knows quite where the name comes from and a number of stories are told. The Pillars of Hercules in mythology are the Straits of Gibralter, the entrance to the then known world. One of the past estate owners was a classicist and one of the estate houses was know as "Herculaneum". Possibly the "Pillars of Hercules" was the entrance to their world in the Estate or stones on which coffins were rested on their way to the burial ground at Kilgour. A leaflet is available in the café explaining the history of the "Pillars".

We recommend the excellent soup served with a choice of oatcakes or bread. Kalmata Olives, Toasted Olive Bread, Granary Bread Sandwiches and Herculean Salad (green salad, tomato, peppers, onion, beansprouts and olives) are also on the menu. There are homemade cakes and pastries and Hills of Galloway Ice Cream. To drink there is coffee, latte, cappuccino, mocha, hot chocolate, tea and herbals teas. And there are takeaways.

Note that the toilet is outside round the side of the building.

The shop offers fruit and vegetables, bread, meat, eggs, and ecological household products. Like Tesco, it claims to be a one-stop shopping experience, but only for organic products.

Why would I go there?   The combination of rustic charm and organic food.

Any Negatives? Interior lacks space

Before or After:
1. Visit Falkland Palace and Gardens where Mary, Queen of Scots, spent some of the happiest days of her life "playing the country girl in the woods and the parks". For more information and opening times see "www.nts.org.uk"
2. Hillwalk on the Lomond Hills. The Lomond hills are a pleasant surprise for those not familiar with them and a relatively undemanding walk is rewarded with some of the best views in Scotland. Excellent introduction to those new to hillwalking.


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