Day 3 saw us travel south from Ayr to Gatehouse of Fleet, after a morning spent sampling the local delights of Pirate Pete’s mini-golf and the amusement arcade, in less than tropical weather conditions!

Having left plenty of time for the picturesque drive down, we decided to spend a couple of hours having lunch and looking around Kirkcudbright – a small harbour town just a few miles from Gatehouse of Fleet – which is renowned for it’s popularity amongst painters even to this day as an inspiration for many of their works of art.

Upon our arrival at Gatehouse Parish church, we received a very warm welcome from the hosts (complete with soup, sandwiches and quiche!) and put in the usual tweaks to our set to deal with the difference in staging which the platform posed us.

A compact yet responsive audience took their seats across the two-tiered hall as we embarked upon the first half – featuring the same programme as our first concert of the tour in Melrose on Friday evening, before our ‘Alone at the Opera’ set closed the concert in the second half. At both the interval and the end of the concert, it was great to talk to a number of members of the local Solway Symphony orchestra who had come to listen to the concert!

Jonny Bates

24/3/19