Friday 19th September 2025
I booked this a couple of months ago (before we went to Silloth) when it was warm and sunny and while the reviews are mixed I was hoping that it’d be out-of-season for most folks.
We set off down the M74 towards Moffat and then onto the A701 for a drive towards the Solway Firth - yellow warnings of rain were on the motorway signs so we knew we were in for a wet weekend.
It’s easy enough to find the Parkdean resort at Southerness, and we pulled in I jumped into the reception to get a map to our pitch.
We were a bit puzzled as it was showing as on a tent pitch, but we drove round to the pitch, and it was on a grass pitch, but…they are not numbered, only the map shows roughly where the pitch is.
We had also booked (and paid £3/night) an awning, but there wasn’t really room for an awning on those pitches.
We managed to get nearly level, pulled on the screen covers and headed off towards the entertainments centre for something to eat.
Gayle was hungry and fancied the steak and ale pie with a pint of Aspalls, while I went for the chicken balmoral and a pint of Coors, they came quite quickly and while the chicken was a bit overdone, it was pretty tasty and the vegetables with it were delicious.
Apparently the steak pie was delicious too.
It was pretty quiet in the Coast bar, so we headed back to the van and sat down to watch “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”, it’s fun but not great.
Saturday 20th September 2025
It rained most of the night.
We set off early to wander round to the shop to grab some bits for breakfast, it’s well stocked, but a wee bit expensive.
We had had toasted crumpets and I had Biscoff spread on mine, while Gayle opted for butter, very nice breakfast in the van.
We pulled on our walking shoes and set off for the Solway firth with the threat of rain ever present, Southerness is pretty much directly opposite Silloth on the firth.
The tide was coming in, and at one point I nearly got wet feet as it cut off our return path, the tide comes in very fast.
There’s not a lot to Southerness, two large campsites (mostly statics) and a hotel, pub, chip-shop and shop.
With rain threatening we headed back to the site and spent the rest of the morning reading - for lunch we had rolls with sausage and potato scones.
The heavy rain arrived, and it was pretty grim outside, dark, windy and wet.
About 7pm we headed out to the restaurant again for dinner, I had the gammon steak and curly fries which was great the last gammon steak I had was pretty poor so I was really happy to get a nice char-grilled steak with great flavour.
Gayle had their signature burger which was great.
This time the bar was pretty busy as there was football on.
We headed back to the van in the rain, and sat down to watch the first episode of “Invasion” from Apple TV, it’s intriguing…
Sunday 21st September
We woke to beautiful blue skies and warm(ish) sunshine…it was dry most of the night but a bit windy, which had dried out the grass pitches reasonably well.
We had to be off the pitch by 10am which is pretty early, I guess they need time to sweep and clean the pitches before the next vehicle…
So we had a light breakfast with toasted tea-cakes, washed up our dishes, emptied our toilet and departed at around 9:30am for the two hour drive back home…via a quick stop off at Dumfries to pump up a tyre and grab some food.
I can imagine that the site is pretty busy at the height of summer, and some of the reviews feel a bit harsh, but that’s the nature of reviewing - would we go back? Yes…but there’s not a lot to do, even walking along the firth, it’s a good six miles to Sandyhills in one direction and not easy to get back from.