Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It comprises the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Wigtownshire, the latter two of which are collectively known as Galloway. The administrative centre is the town of Dumfries.
Kirkcudbrightshire, or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the informal Galloway area of south-western Scotland. For local government purposes, it forms part of the wider Dumfries and Galloway council area of which it forms a committee area under the name of the Stewartry.
The Rhins of Galloway, otherwise known as the Rhins of Wigtownshire, is a hammer-head peninsula in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Stretching more than 25 miles from north to south, its southern tip is the Mull of Galloway, the southernmost point of Scotland.
The Machars is a peninsula in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Galloway in the south-west of Scotland. Its name is derived from the Gaelic word Machair meaning low-lying or level land, known as "links" on the east coast of Scotland. Although there are no high peaks in The Machars, it is not flat and would best be described as undulating or rolling. The North Atlantic Drift or Gulf Stream creates a mild climate, and dolphins and basking sharks are frequently seen in the seas.
The Galloway Hills are part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland, and form the northern boundary of western Galloway. They lie within the bounds of the Galloway Forest Park, an area of some 300 square miles (800 km2) of largely uninhabited wild land, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland. The unusual place names reflect a mixture of the Old Norse and Scottish Gaelic languages and hint at the range of influences which have acted on society within the area over the centuries.
Kells, a parish, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, 14 miles from Castle-Douglas, and 19 from Kirkcudbright; containing, with the burgh of New Galloway, 1121 inhabitants.
The Dungeon Hills are a range of hills in the Galloway Hills range, part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. The central of three parallel ridges, they are neighboured by the Range of the Awful Hand to the west and the Rhinns of Kells to the east. The range is also perpendicular to the Minnigaff Hills range, immediately south. In total, these four ranges are part of the Galloway Forest Park.