Galloway and Five Red Herrings

I feel somewhat ashamed to admit it, but the inspiration for my next holiday came from one of Dorothy L Sayers' novels. More accurately, it came from the 1975 BBC adaptation of Five Red Herrings, staring Ian Carmichael as super-sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.

Devotees of Dorothy L Sayers' who-dun-its will probably agree that Five Red Herrings is not her best. The solution, when it comes, is very complex and beggars belief that Ferguson (the unwitting perpetrator of the dastardly deed) could have conceived it in such detail.  The BBC version omits much of the complexity and in the process makes for a much better plot.

In her introduction to Five Red Herrings Dorothy L Sayers writes:

All the places are real and all the trains are real, and all the landscapes are correct, except that I have run up a few new houses here and there.

Re-reading the story last year, I had great fun working out the various locations on an Ordnance Survey map of Galloway. "How lovely it would be," I mused, "to have a holiday in the area." Its scenic beauty is undeniable, whilst the Lord Peter connexion would add an unusual dimension to my time there.

Thanks to the BBC, I've already made a start...

High Street, Kirkudbright

High Street now, on Google Street View

Mrs Smith-Lemesurier (right) plucks up courage to enter Wully Murdoch's Selkirk Arms

The Selkirk Arms Hotel looks a lot smarter now

The murder scene – supposedly at Borgan, near Bargrennan. I wonder whether it is? 

Wimsey and Strachan on the Carrick shore

The holiday cottage has been booked and paid for, and in a few weeks' time I will head north to Dumfries and Galloway. I've promised my long-suffering family that I won't spend the whole week tracing Lord Peter's movements, for there are countless rivers, burns and footpaths to explore, including the Southern Upland Way. It should be a great week.