We’ll be driving from Kintyre to the Lake District in a few weeks, is there anywhere to stop-off midway (somewhere between Glasgow and Lockerbie) that we can get some lunch, take the dog for a decent walk (not a stroll round a carpark!), and that the bike will be safe in the back of the car (inside, not on the roof)?

Was gonna suggest the scrib tree in Douglas, but it looks like it’s closed. Shame, was a really nice wee cafe.

The service station on the junction of A70 and M74 is now owned by the same folk as tebay, so should be half decent.

I’d be tempted to just go to the wee cafe in Luss, and not stop after that.

That’s a good shout actually, we’ve stopped off at the Loch Lomond Arms on the way up to Kintyre before and it worked well!

Moffat is a few minutes off the motorway and has a couple of cafe’s from memory, as well as a walk up Gallow Hill.

Mattoab beat me to it Couple of parks in Moffat and a range of places to eat.

Thanks, I guess we can just see how the bladders are doing on the day for Luss vs Moffat!

I was gonna say Moffat, but it’s a bit near your destination end.

The Services at Annandale Water has a lake you can walk round, about half a mile. It’s only a few miles North of Lockerbie, so at the end of your window. Might work if you’re either going well or behind time and need somewhere close to the M74.

Another for Moffat. As for a walk a decent one (but not too long) you can do a walk to Merlins cave. http://merlintrail.com/hartfell/ we did it as a stop off Edinburgh to Warrington.

Thanks all, Moffat sounds good but might be a bit too late in the journey to combine lunch with a walk as we can’t check in to the place in the Lakes til 4. Might work if we decide to do 2 stops though!

In which case, Strathclyde Loch or Chatelherault Country Park.

Cafe at Strathclyde park is dreadful! Can’t think of anywhere else nearby.

For walks an alternative would be to take the A814 to Helensburgh at Arrochar then cross to Loch Lomond on either the Glen Douglas or MOD (A817) road. If you go up Glen Douglas just stick to the north side. Oh and not recommended if anyone gets car sick, that road (A814) was legendary and folk used to take their near-due pregnant wives along it if they were due to go to sea.

Cafe at Strathclyde park is dreadful! Can’t think of anywhere else nearby.

Me neither, I’d just carry on to Cairn Lodge. Was in it a couple of weeks ago, felt weird not thinking I was going to be murdered.

Cairn lodge, that’s the services I couldn’t recall the name of, is it any better since westmoreland took it over SK?

On many jaunts up from Oxfordshire We used tebay or Lockerbie cafe,

Ps take care in the countryside, somewhere near there we we pulled off for a flask and sarnies we were treated to our own Wild West show, was sat in the sunshine down a quiet lane enjoying watching two tractors bringing in the harvest, and then after they’d gone a large, burly, gentleman on a quad came storming across the field, standing up with a shotgun in each hand, gave the crows both barrels from both guns, then turned reloaded and repeated then offski,