Walk from the site:

ROSNES BENCHES: Dalziel + Scullion

Rosnes Benches allows users to tune into to the landscape. Evoking a long history of objects designed around the human form, they also acknowledge the history of the deliberate placing and siting of objects within the landscape, from cup and ring marks on constellations of recumbent stones to contemporary cairns marking high summit points. The Rosnes Benches can be used as a conduit between person and place, to tune into the multi sensory landscape. They encourage people to stop, dwell and absorb the context that surrounds them and to stare up at a night sky filled with stars.

Location: Walk past the Sanctuary Car Park, further down the track to the McMoab rock formation on the right. Opposite this, is a dirt track. Take this track and about 100 yards up the track on the left (about 80 yards before the start of a spruce forest), two Rosnes Benches are located on a raised slab of tussocky ground (10 min walk) http://www.rosnesbench.com

QUORUM: Matt Baker

Six stone heads (granite and whinstone), carved and reinstalled into an abandoned sheepfold by artist Matt Baker (The Stove Network) during a residency in The Galloway Forest in 1997. The Galloway Forest was planted in the Post-War period and covers a vast area of former farmland and other important local infrastructure. Quorum is sited in a forest clearing beside a small river.

Baker’s work during the Galloway Forest residency explored the instability of the relationship between: the original, bold vision of a commercial forest, the remains of past inhabitation/use and the emerging role of forestry not as a producer of timber but as a place of natural beauty for the enjoyment of the visitor. Over recent years there has been significant timber harvesting in the area ñ shifting the context further.

Quorum is sited adjacent to the Old Edinburgh Road, a mediaeval pilgrimage route from the capital to St Ninianís Cave at the Isle of Whithorn. The road (now a track) is currently used by Forestry vehicles moving about the plantations. www.mattbaker.org.uk

Location: Head up the path on the East side of the Palnure Burn (the other side of the bridge by Murrayís Monument car park) It is approx 3/4 of a mile, steep in places. Quorum is located where the Palnure Burn crosses the forestry road which runs behind Murray’s Monument.

A short drive away:

Wigtown Book Festival. 22 Sep – 4 Oct 2021

The Wigtown Book festival is about 14 miles from the Sanctuary site and well worth a visit if you live nearby or are in the area for a few days. Or combine a visit to Sanctuary with popping over to sample the bookshops, cafes and events.
Full programme at: https://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/

This tiny place in deepest Galloway stands on the brink of a bold new era… The [festival] has become a must attend event in Scotland’s cultural calendar.

Mike Wade, The Times