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Balmaclellan
An attractive hillside village. Celtic relics have
been found in the area. This was once a centre of the Covenanter faith.
There is a statue to Robert Paterson, Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Old
Mortality’.Balmaclellan is a small village with a widely spread rural
community, on the east side of the river Ken, opposite to New Galloway.
From the war memorial there is a panoramic view westwards over the
Rhinns of Kells and other surrounding hills. On the east side of the
village another impressive range stretches five miles from Barscobe
Hill to Fell Hill. This is trackless, but affords excellent rough hill
walking for the serious walker, with far reaching views.
Other, more easily accessible walks are available on roads and
paths and the Glenkens Jubilee Walk links Balmaclellan with New
Galloway and Dalry. A nature reserve surrounds the Lowes Lochs, whilst
red kites and black grouse are two of a wide range of wildlife to be
seen in the area.
A finely decorated mirror and crescent of the Bronze Age were found
near Balmaclellan and are now in the National Museum of Scotland. The
village is overlooked by a 12th century motte, flanked by the Old
Edinburgh road, used in the Middle Ages by pilgrims on their way to St
Ninian’s shrine at Whithorn. Completed in 1648, Barscobe Castle, about
a mile out of the village, is a good example of the last phase of tower
house building in Scotland.
Balmaclellan has strong Covenanter associations. A statue in the
churchyard commemorates Robert Paterson who, up to his death in 1801,
travelled the countryside carving and renovating memorials to
Covenanters. His wife, left to care for the family, established a
school in the village, which can still be seen. Her grave and those of
other members of the family are marked in the churchyard. Amongst other
interesting gravestones in the churchyard is an emotionally worded
tombstone inscription to one of the Covenanters – Robert Grierson,
killed for his faith in 1685.
As its hub, the village has a shop and post office which provides a
warm and friendly welcome to all visitors. Crafts in the village are
well represented with the delightful clog and shoe workshop, a pottery
and an artist’s studio and gallery, all offering a hospitable reception.
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