Dumfries calls itself the Queen of the South, and its great claim to fame is a poet. Robert Burns spent the last five years of his life here, from 1791 to 1796, working as an excise officer and writing some of his best songs, including A Man's a Man for A' That. He died in the town at the age of thirty-seven, and the house where he lived, in a street now named after him, is a small museum with his desk and letters. His mausoleum, a domed Greek temple in St Michael's churchyard, draws pilgrims on Burns Night every January.
The River Nith runs through the middle of the town, spanned by a medieval bridge, the Devorgilla, built in the fifteenth century and named for a lady who founded Balliol College, with a mill and weir beside it. Dumfries is a market town and the capital of the southwest of Scotland, with red sandstone buildings, an elegant main square and a long history of border conflict. J. M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, went to school at Dumfries Academy, and he later said that the idea for Neverland grew out of games played in the town's gardens.
The South West Coastal 300, a long route around the Galloway coast, passes here. For riders, the roads that lead from the town are among the best in southern Scotland: the A710 coast road to the Solway shore, the quiet lanes through the Galloway hills, and the road toward Moffat and the Southern Uplands all offer gentle curves, long views and little traffic. The surface is variable, with some patched sections, and sheep wander freely on the open moors, so keep your speed under control.
Dumfries has plentiful fuel, supermarkets, pubs and cafes, and it is the main service town for the region. Locharbriggs, Lochmaben and the smaller villages around have fewer services. The best months are May to September, with long light evenings, though Scottish weather can change fast, and rain should always be expected. Midges can be a nuisance in damp, still weather. In winter, ice on the hill roads makes riding unwise. The Solway tides are among the fastest in Britain, so keep clear of the mudflats.