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Creetown is a small granite-built village on the eastern shore of Wigtown Bay at the mouth of the Cree estuary, its grey stone houses reflecting the quarrying and granite-finishing trade that was the community's main industry from the eighteenth century through to the twentieth. The Creetown Gem Rock Museum, one of the most unusual visitor attractions in south-west Scotland, occupies a former church in the village and contains a worldwide collection of gemstones, crystals and fossils that draws visitors throughout the year. The village sits at the northern boundary of the Galloway Forest Park, and the Brown Carrick and Cairnsmore of Fleet hills rise steeply behind the settlement, giving apiaries in Creetown access to extensive heather moors from late July. The Cree estuary and Wigtown Bay to the south are a National Nature Reserve, and the saltmarsh, mudflat and dune-grassland of the bay margin hold sea-aster, thrift and sea-lavender through the summer. Sycamore on the village lane trees provides the May flow; gorse on the Forest Park edge and the hillside common flowers from late winter. Hawthorn and blackthorn on the field boundaries carry the spring blossom; white clover on the improved coastal farmland between Creetown and Newton Stewart is the main June and July source.

The mild Solway climate means spring starts earlier than most of Scotland. Blackthorn and hawthorn open the year; sycamore is important. Oilseed rape is moderate. Lime carries June in Dumfries and Stranraer. Galloway Forest contributes bilberry, rowan and late ling heather; coastal sea-campion on the Solway adds character. Himalayan balsam along the Nith gives a long late flow, and ivy on whitewashed cottage walls closes the year.