- 01848 331435
- info@kptdevelopmenttrust.org
- Trust Office, Main St, Penpont
- 07548876433.
SATURDAY 18, JULY
A massive thank you to everyone who joined us on Saturday 18th July for our Wild West themed Amazing Summer opening event! It was an extra special day as we also celebrated The Glebe Field officially coming into community ownership.
Events like this are only ever as good as the people who come together to make them happen, and we are so grateful to everyone who came along and brought so much laughter, energy, and fun. Thank you to every single person for gathering on the Glebe Field and taking part in such an awesome event!
Our budding pioneers truly embraced the spirit of the wild frontier, working together to build a brand-new settlement using whatever resources they could find. The creativity on display was incredible, from the brilliant eco-houses built with Hayjavu crafts to the fantastic creations at the Lego building station. The frontier came alive with fantastic face painting, sparkly glitter tattoos, and plenty of action at our shooting range, horseshoe pitch and toss, and bow and arrow range. Our inner cowboys and cowgirls were kept well-fed thanks to the spectacular Wild West BBQ cooked up by the Three Villages Cafe.
We wrapped up the perfect day by gathering around the communal fire to toast some delicious sweet and savoury s’mores. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Camplebridge riding school for their wonderful support, and a huge shoutout to our special surprise guests: Jessica and Grant Fergusson, alongside Tennessee and Thor, who made the day truly unforgettable.
Finally, this incredible celebration was made possible thanks to generous funding and support. Many thanks to Ross McWhirter, Dean Foster, Caroline Buck, Team Tollett and others for helping with the cutting of the grass and setting up of the event. Massive thanks go to Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Summer of Play Fund, Keir Community Council, Penpont Community Council, and the KPT Development Trust Community Benefit Fund for making this day a reality for our community.
UNCOVERING SCOTLAND’S SECRET GOLD:
A JOURNEY BACK IN TIME AT WANLOCKHEAD
Nestled high in the Lowther Hills sits Wanlockhead, Scotland’s highest village. For our first amazing summer trip, Tuesday 22 July was not just a day out, but a tangible journey back through time into the heart of our country’s social history. Thanks to our generous funders, we were able to provide this incredible experience to our children, none of whom had ever visited this remarkable historic site before.
From the moment we arrived at the Lead Mining Museum, the staff made us feel like truly honoured guests. Our tour guide, Stuart, was the absolute best, instantly capturing everyone’s imagination. He brought to life the gruelling working conditions once endured by lead miners, movingly explaining that children as young as six years old were once put to work in these hills.
Stuart guided us underground into the deep chill of the real mine, where we experienced the cramped, dark conditions of life beneath the earth. We learned about the ‘miners’ bargain’—a system where close-knit family groups or neighbours would contract together for a section of the mine—and how later advances in technology and hard-won health and safety improvements slowly changed the industry. The children were especially fascinated to hear about the vital roles played by the hardy pit ponies.
Back on the surface, we explored the beautifully preserved workers’ cottages, gaining a real sense of domestic life in centuries past, and visited the spectacular miners’ library, which stands proud as the second oldest subscription library in Europe.
The absolute highlight for many was the opportunity to try our hands at gold panning. A fair few of our group actually struck it lucky, spotting glints of real gold in their pans! However, KPTDT need not worry about losing staff and volunteers. As it is safe to say, no one will be retiring on a fortune any time soon.
We left Wanlockhead with full hearts, a deep gratitude to our funders, and an unforgettable connection to the past. It was an educational, thrilling day that our young people will talk about for a very long time, and we cannot recommend the visit enough. A big thank you to Tony Francis our driver for the day and to Thornhill & District Community Transport.
Our FRIDAY SESSION 24 JULY 2026
A Huge Thank You to Hayjavu Crafts!
We want to send a massive thank you to the wonderful Linda Hay from Hayjavu Crafts for leading our brilliant Tuesday morning workshop as part of our Amazing Summer Programme of activities!
Linda guided our eager participants through various creative tie-dyeing techniques. By using simple tools like stones and rubber bands, everyone learned how to manipulate fabric to create beautifully unique, colourful patterned bags.
The session was an absolute blast, with everyone having great fun getting hands-on and unleashing their inner artists. The results were spectacular, and we were all really proud of our vibrant, multi-coloured finished masterpieces! Thank you, Linda, for sharing your fantastic crafting skills with us and making our summer programme so memorable.
AN UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER SAFFARI: COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AT ITS BEST!!
Our intrepid Garden Safarists had a wonderful afternoon exploring local terrain on Sunday 26th July! This “Amazing Summer” adventure was made possible thanks to our incredible expedition funders: Dumfries and Galloway Council, Keir Community Council, Penpont Community Council, and the KPTDT Community Benefit Fund.
First Stop: Base Camp Bridgend
The journey kicked off at Bridgend Community Garden, where trackers fuelled up on superb savoury dishes. Visitors from the Old School Thornhill territory arrived just in time to join our very first “watering hole” activity—foraging for creativity by making brilliant safari animal masks with Hayjavu Crafts.
Transporting the Herd
When it was time to migrate, huge thanks went to Thornhill and District Community Transport, who safely whisked our herd across the plains to Old School Thornhill. A few of our most active, adventurous adult explorers even chose to cycle their way across the entire safari trail aka the Active Travel Path!
Final Destination: Old School Thornhill
At our final outpost, Old School Thornhill’s dedicated youth worker Lia, guided everyone through fantastic nature-based crafts. Explorers were treated to divine sweet delicacies while tracking the progress of other community gardens and the Thornhill Food Initiative.
It was a brilliant afternoon of discovering new habitats, learning together, and forging new friendships—community collaboration at its absolute wildest!
OUR DAY DOWN IN THE GARDEN
WITH PROPAGATE
TUESDAY 28 JULY
Permaculture and Fun at Bridgend Community Garden!
We had a fabulous day down at Bridgend Community Garden with Lusi Alderslowe from Propagate, author of the Engaging Children in Permaculture course!
Our session started by learning the core Permaculture ethics: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. Our children and young people really expressed themselves, openly sharing their own brilliant ideas on what these values look like in everyday practice.
The day was packed with a diverse range of hands-on activities, including:
Green Woodworking: Crafting unique name badges and plant labels from “wood cookies.” (Even Linda Hay learned how to saw wood—we think her husband Ian will be very impressed!).
Plant Studies: Investigating a variety of plants, drawing them, identifying species, and uncovering fun botanical facts.
Nature Exploration: Learning a poem, embarking on an exciting bug hunt, playing group games, and brewing fresh mint tea straight from the garden.
It was truly the best day ever, filled with learning, laughter, and community spirit!
FRIDAY, 31st JULY
CLAY, CREATIVITY, AND A SURPRISE SNAIL ARMY AS
YOUNG CRAFTERS SHINE WITH HAYJAVU CRAFTS
Our children and young people enjoyed a fantastic, creative morning on Friday 31st July during an exciting crafting session with Hayjavu Crafts. The workshop was filled with laughter, imagination, and plenty of clay modelling.
The creative session kicked off with a big challenge: making large clay snails designed to brighten up our gardens. The young artists were given a wonderful selection of vibrant coloured globes to choose from, including vivid greens, deep reds, rich purples, bright blues, and even silver glittery ones. Everyone spent time shaping and moulding their creations, carefully smoothing out the details until they were perfectly happy with their final pieces. To top it off, these large garden snails decorated with lovely, shimmering bubble globes will look just like real snails with their own shell-like homes.
After perfecting the large models, the group moved on to making smaller companion snails. For these, the crafters selected beautiful marbles to serve as the snails’ shell-like homes, adding a glassy, colourful touch to the clay bodies.
While the initial plan for the workshop was to create a traditional “snail trail,” the young people’s enthusiasm took over. We are not entirely sure how it happened, but the group somehow ended up creating a mini snail army instead! Every single snail in the army is completely unique, beautiful, and packed with individual personality.
TUESDAY, 4th AUGUST
AMAZING SUMMER ADVENTURE UNLEASHED:
CASTLE TALES AND ESCAPE ROOM TRIUMPH!
Our second Amazing Summer Trip was a thrilling success as our children, young people, and adult helpers journeyed to the historic Closeburn Castle for a day packed with history, mystery, and mind-boggling puzzles.
Furtive Felines and Dungeon Discoveries: The adventure split our brave explorers into two groups for a double dose of excitement.
The Escape Room: Teams tackled the “Crazy Cat Lady” room, working together to track down furtive felines and successfully break out before time ran out.
The Castle Tour: Renowned storyteller Kathleen Cronie from Mostly Ghostly led a captivating tour through the castle’s ancient halls.
The children completely embraced the spirit of adventure. They marvelled at historic paintings, looked in awe at the butterflies in the dungeon, and listened intently to tales of Robert Burns, Robert the Bruce, and the dark legend of the Closeburn Swan. A few spine-tingling, strange experiences during the tour even had everyone talking long after the event!
Our heartfelt thanks: as this unforgettable day was made possible thanks to a wonderful community collaboration:
Maria Navarro de Sepulveda: Huge thanks to our host at Closeburn Castle & Escape Rooms for welcoming us so warmly.
Kathleen Cronie: Gratitude to Mostly Ghostly for bringing the castle’s history and ghost stories to life.
Thornhill and District Community Transport: A massive shoutout to our fantastic transport team for getting us there and back safely in one piece—and ensuring no one was left trapped in the dungeon or with the cats! Many thanks to our generous funders: Dumfries and Galloway Council, Keir Community Council, Penpont Community Council and KPTDT Community Benefit Fund.
Thank you to all of our incredible young people and adult helpers who made this summer trip so special.
FRIDAY, 7th AUGUST
SNAIL PAINTING, SUPERHERO SHELLS, AND SUMMER FUN!
Our Amazing Summer morning session on Friday 7th August was a total blast of pure creativity as the children brought our giant clay snails to life! We were blown away by their incredible imaginations, featuring everything from a vibrant Yellow Submarine and Papa Smurf to a spooky ghost snail and a web-slinging Spider-Man. After refuelling with some delicious, packed lunches, we headed out to the park to burn off some energy with a magical bubble-blowing session and a brilliant, highly competitive game of rounders!
TUESDAY, 11TH AUGUST
HARVESTING, FORAGING, IMMERSED IN NATURE, AND CAMPFIRE COOKERY:
A MAGICAL GARDEN DELIGHT DAY!
Tuesday 11th August turned into an unforgettable “Garden Delight Day” when our young pioneers took the lead, choosing to slow down and fully immerse themselves in the magic of nature. The day kicked off with a spectacular, unplanned treat as three magnificent Red Kites put on a thrilling aerodynamic flight display right above us! To add to the pure joy, a passing tractor driver cutting the grass played right along, beeping his horn to the absolute delight of our shouting, waving crowd.
Our young gardeners took great care of our growing spaces by weeding the pathways between the vegetable beds and learning exactly how to tend, prune, and care for our flourishing tomato plants to ensure a great harvest. Our young explorers became true stewards of the land as they weeded the beds, cuddled our friendly chickens, gathered fresh eggs, harvested potatoes, brambles, blue berries and examined the hidden world inside our compost heap.
Turning our attention to freshwater ecology, we headed down for some river dipping and uncovered a bustling underwater world filled with tiny fish fry and freshwater shrimps. We then enjoyed a beautiful, peaceful riverside walk along the Penpont-to-Keir path, where imagination took over. The children crafted miniature boats out of leaves to launch in the current and finished the journey with a lively, competitive game of Pooh sticks from the bridge, all while spotting earthworms, fluttering butterflies, and a fascinating mix of summer insects. To top off a perfect day of exploration, we identified our food, harvested and prepared it, and used our freshly found garden treasures to cook up an absolute outdoor fire feast!
FRIDAY, 14th AUGUST
CULTIVATING COMMUNITY:
A MAGICAL FINALE TO OUR
FINAL AMAZING SUMMER 2026, MORNING SESSION
What an extraordinary way to wrap up our Amazing Summer 2026 season! Our final morning session was an absolute triumph of community spirit, creativity, and green-fingered fun. We were thrilled to welcome the incredibly talented Linda Hay from HayjaVu Crafts for a hands-on workshop that perfectly embodied our core permaculture ethics and growing horticultural skills.
True to the heart of permaculture, our session was built on collaboration. Everyone worked beautifully together, sharing resources, swapping creative ideas, and lending a helping hand to construct our very own mini nature gardens.
Crafting the Backdrop:
The morning kicked off with a wonderful test of focus and patience. To set the stage for our mini ecosystems, everyone had to very carefully colour in a charming paper backdrop. We brought tiny houses, cheerful sunshines, and friendly scarecrows to life with vibrant bursts of colour, creating the perfect scenery for our tiny plots.
Building the Landscape:
Next came the engineering challenge! Precision was key as we meticulously constructed miniature picket fences to border our plots. The steady hands and determination on display were truly inspiring. Once the structures were safely secured, it was time to get our hands dirty.
Planting the Future:
Participants helped themselves to rich, real compost to fill their miniature beds. Applying our horticultural knowledge, we then sowed a blend of real grass seed and a vibrant wildflower mix—perfectly designed to replicate a thriving, biodiverse ecosystem in miniature form.
Share Your Progress!
Now, the real magic begins as we wait for the first green shoots to emerge! We would love for all of our Amazing Summer families who took a mini garden home to share photographs of your garden’s progress with us. Let’s keep the community spirit alive by tracking our little ecosystems together.
FRIDAY, 14th AUGUST
FROM TRASH TO TRAILBLAZERS:
UPCYCLED WILD WEST FASHION CAPS OFF OUR AMAZING SUMMER
What a spectacular, creative showdown to close out our final afternoon session of Amazing Summer 2026! For our grand finale, our children and young people stepped directly into the wild frontier, looking absolutely incredible and appropriately dressed in authentic Wild West fashion.
The secret to our success? Pure creativity, resourcefulness, and a heavy dose of sustainable upcycling!
The Power of Upcycling:
In keeping with our community values, this session was all about learning new skills, reusing materials, and reimagining old items. It was absolutely amazing to see what just a few clever tweaks here and there could achieve. With a bit of “this and that,” participants transformed everyday materials into rugged cowboy vests, lawman badges, and frontier flair.
A Winning Format:
We didn’t have to look far for inspiration for this event. Last year, we were so inspired by the massive success of our 1980s-themed disco and the incredible support from our very own KPT Craft Circle. Knowing how well that team effort worked, we followed pretty much the same collaborative format this year—and it paid off beautifully!
A Few Borrowed Details:
Community spirit truly dressed our young trailblazers. Alongside their own upcycled creations, a few borrowed accessories helped complete the historical looks. Everyone shared, collaborated, and styled each other to perfection.
We are absolutely delighted with the final results and immensely proud of the talent, imagination, and new skills our young people displayed. They didn’t just dress up; they learned the valuable art of giving old materials a brand-new life.
Thank you to everyone who contributed materials, time, and enthusiasm to make this grand finale a wild success!
FRIDAY, 14th AUGUST
THE ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN:
WILD WEST DISCO AS AN UNFORGETTABLE AMAZING SUMMER 2026
What a spectacular, high-energy sundown to our Amazing Summer 2026 season! Our Grand Finale Wild West themed disco, party games, and buffet was an absolute triumph. We were delighted in equal measures by the incredible turnout and the wonderful support from our amazing summer families. Our fantastic children and young people lived and breathed the Wild West theme, keeping the energy high and the frontier spirit alive right up until the very last minute!
A Roundup of Heartfelt Thanks
An ultimate summer holiday experience like this takes a whole community to build. KPT Development Trust would like to extend a massive, heartfelt final thank you to:
Our Amazing Summer children and young people for bringing boundless energy and creativity to every session.
Our wonderful families and local volunteers for their unwavering support, helping hands, and community spirit.
Our dedicated activity providers and supporters for inspiring us with new skills and memories.
Our fantastic funders whose generosity made this entire experience possible for everyone.
A Legendary Frontier Feast
Of course, a summer spent with KPT Development Trust also means that we have been incredibly well-fed! We have thoroughly enjoyed our packed lunches, picnics, and BBQs all season long.
For our Grand Finale event, Maureen Halkett (Chair) and our most awesome Three Villages Café crew truly excelled themselves. They provided us with an absolute culinary sensation, serving up:
Hearty beef stew;
Flavourful burritos;
Delicious stuffed mushrooms,
Gorgeous chocolate cakes and other delicious tasty treats!
What an absolute weekend to remember! As the dust settles on KM Rally 2026, we want to extend a massive, heartfelt THANK YOU to every single person who made this weekend an unforgettable success. First, to our incredible team of volunteers: you truly brought the colour and cheer to life. From dawn till dusk, your smiling faces kept everything running like clockwork. A special shout-out goes to our inspiring young people from the Three Villages Cafe and the unstoppable Team Tollet. A very big shout out to Maureen for the amazing catering! Your hard work, boundless energy, and total commitment made our Saturday night event a seamless, community-led triumph!
To our ralliers: thank you for travelling from far and wide to join us. It was a joy to welcome back familiar faces who have supported us for goodness knows how many years, right alongside those joining the KM Rally family for the very first time ever. Saturday night’s BBQ and Ceilidh was a roaring success! They say tradition never grows old, and that was proven on Saturday. The Ceilidh stood out as the ultimate intergenerational event, with dancers of all ages filling the floor. A huge thank you to The Roving Pedlars for bringing the party and keeping the energy high all night long. Together, we enjoyed an unforgettable weekend packed with wheels of colour, smoky scenes, and beautiful sunbeams.
Thank you all for making the KM Rally 2026 so special. Here’s to the community spirit that drives us forward!
Global Cycling Network Community Cycling Dumfries Cycling, South West Scotland Cycling Weekly Cycling Scotland
During the first week of Amazing Summer Activities the children, young people and families had lots of nature based learning and outdoors fun down in the community garden – hunting for bugs, identifying bugs, refurbishing our bug hotel, planting bulbs and wildflowers to help look after our pollinators, den building and our campfire cookery session led by Maureen. Linda Hay has been busy teaching the children new crafting skills and KPT Craft Circle are helping to bring back the 80’s. There have been lots of lovely comments from residents saying how great it is to see and hear the children having so much to do, being well behaved and really enjoying themselves.
Our Amazing Summer 2025 second week started with Children’s Tours at Closeburn Castle: where KPT’s young history and ghost story lovers got to visit the castle and experience the Crazy Cat Lady Escape Room. It has certainly been a highlight to our entire programme as we all had a super time searching for those furtive felines. We split into two groups one group to try to escape and the other to go on the tour and story telling session. After our fabulous lunch time picnic we swapped over. Kathleen from Mostly Ghostly was very impressed by the knowledge and enthusiasm her young guests displayed, their curiosity and love of a good tale shone through, with highlights including a visit to the dungeon, stories of Burns and Bruce and a special request for Kathleen’s favourite – The Headless Piper of Corsock Moor.
Thank you to Maria Navarro de Sepulveda for her warm welcome and for ensuring all of our children wholeheartedly embraced their spirit of adventure. Thank you to Thornhill and District Community Transport who were the real heroes of the day ensuring that we were all safely transported from Penpont and successfully escaped to return home again. A big thank you to KPT Craft Circle for being on hand again this week to help keep us right with our 1980’s style Disco Diva and Decor workshops. Linda Hay has certainly taught us how to prepare for a PARTY! We all loved our cinema afternoon with Driftwood Cinema.
The Amazing Summer finale was a fun packed 1980’s style disco held in the Gladstone Hall on Friday, 25th July.
It’s a big well done and thank you to all of our Amazing Summer 2025 crew. A special thank you to The Three Villages Community Café for the fabulous packed lunches and thanks to our funders Dumfries and Galloway Council – Youth Enquiry Service and KPT Community Benefit Fund.
KIRKPATRICK MACMILLAN RALLY
FRIDAY 23rd to MONDAY 26th MAY 2025
This popular Rally based in Penpont, close to the birthplace of Kirkpatrick Macmillan in beautiful Mid-Nithsdale, Dumfriesshire was run on the 2025 May Bank Holiday weekend.
Dumfries & Galloway’s Spring Fling Event was also held over the May Bank Holiday weekend which provided terrific opportunities to combine rides with interesting visits to studios and workshops over the weekend.
The K M Rally is run by a small group of local dedicated cyclists and KPT Development Trust which is a non-profit making organisation run by the communities of Keir, Penpont and Tynron. The event was insured through Cycling UK.
KEIR VILLAGE HALL CAKE RAID
One of the favourite activities of the KM Rally weekend is the Keir Cake Raid – and it is easy to see why!! Well done Team Keir for the delicious cakes.
FAMILY CEILIDH
The Roving Peddlers succeeded in getting everyone up and dancing in Keir Village Hall on the Saturday evening. A fantastic opportunity for locals and KM Ralliers to get together and enjoy music, dance and atmosphere.
YARN BOMBING
In the run up to the KM Rally a group of talented volunteers had been quietly crafting up a colourful transformation to celebrate the occasion and brighten up the village. Craft Circle will continue in the KPT office on Wednesdays at 1pm. We are looking forward to seeing what they come up with next!
CLIMATE CONVERSATION
Over the weekend of the KM Rally we also held a climate conversation with family activities in the Gladstone Hall. We discussed what actions can be taken and what we can do as individuals as well as collectively. Thank you to Abby (Climate Officer), Ben (Nith Life), Robert (Muirkirk Media), Ian (Author) and Councillor Tony Berretti for their involvement in this event.
