Balmaclellan

Balmaclellan is one of four parishes in the northern district of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. It contains {{cvt|23737|acre|km2|1}}, of which about {{cvt|4000|acre|km2}} are cultivated. It includes areas of water, extensive plains of moss and about {{cvt|300|acre|km2}} of tree plantation, but most of the land is used for sheep or cattle pasture. Many of the cattle are of the Galloway breed.{{Cite web |url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/KKD/Balmaclellan/index.html |title=Gen Uki.org: Balmaclellan |access-date=18 November 2008 |archive-date=6 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706144134/http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/KKD/Balmaclellan/index.html |url-status=live }} The climate is temperate. Average monthly temperatures range from {{cvt|1|to|7|C|F}} in January, and {{cvt|11|to|18|C|F}} in July–August, with {{cvt|984|mm}} of rain yearly.{{Cite web |url=http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/auchincruive.html |title=Met Office Auchincruive 1971-2000 averages |access-date=19 November 2008 |archive-date=24 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024185247/http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/auchincruive.html |url-status=live }}

In 1887, John Bartholomew's "Gazetteer of the British Isles" Described the inhabitants as "... of a mixed Gaelic and Germanic origin, and speak Braid Scots, a Northumbrian dialect of English. Those that profess a religion are generally but by no means entirely Calvinist Christians, adhering to the Church of Scotland or the Wee Frees".{{Cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10146136 |title=A vision of Balmaclellan |access-date=18 November 2008 |archive-date=24 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024163734/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10146136 |url-status=live }}

In 2009, of those who profess a religion in Balmaclellan most are Presbyterians adhering to the Church of Scotland.

The population was 554 in 1801, 634 in 1901, and 550 in 1951.

Celtic relics have been found in the area, including a finely decorated mirror and crescent of the Bronze Age that is now in the National Museum of Scotland. The parish of Balmaclellan appears to have had an earlier British name, Treuercarcou, which appears in a thirteenth-century record of ecclesiastical taxes. The treu- part of this name is clearly the old northern British equivalent of modern Welsh tref, 'farmstead, dwelling', and car- is likely derived from caer meaning 'hill-fort', indicating an early settlement when this P-Celtic language was still spoken in the area.

The upper village has a 12th-century motte: the "Bal" of Balmaclellan. Barscobe Castle is just over a mile to the northeast, built in 1648 by William Maclellan, a fine example of the last phase of tower house building in Scotland.{{Cite web |url=http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townfirst3371.html |title=Overview of Balmaclellan - Dumfries and Galloway |access-date=11 November 2010 |archive-date=22 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922083939/http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townfirst3371.html |url-status=live }}

Balmaclellan Parish Church was built in 1753, rebuilt in 1772 and added to in 1833 by local architect William McCandlish.{{cite web |title='Bachies - Baneton', in A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/scotland/pp91-101 |website=British History Online |publisher=S Lewis, London 1846 |access-date=19 May 2025}}[https://scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk/church/balmaclellan-church/]

Balmaclellan was once a centre of the Covenanter religious movement. The village has a statue to Robert Paterson, Sir Walter Scott's 'Old Mortality'. His wife Elizabeth Gray established a school in the village, which can still be seen. She died in 1785 and is buried in the churchyard. Amongst other gravestones is that of another Covenanter, Robert Grierson, who was killed for his faith in 1685 (not to be confused with Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, notorious persecutor of the Galloway Covenanters).{{Cite web |url=http://www.visitsouthernscotland.com/area/town_detail.asp?TownID=152 |title=Visit Southern Scotland.com: Balmaclellan |access-date=18 November 2008 |archive-date=25 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070525094142/http://www.visitsouthernscotland.com/area/town_detail.asp?TownID=152 |url-status=live }}

The churchyard also contains what is probably the earliest civic war memorial in Scotland. It commemorates five men from Balmaclellan who died in the Crimean War.

They are:

• William Barr, Rifle Brigade
• James Gibson, 42nd Highlanders
• Joseph Gordon, Lance Cpl.,Royal Sappers and Miners
• James McMichael, Lance Cpl., 46th Reg
• Thomas McRobert, Fusilier-Guards. [2]

A sixth man John Henry Upton Spalding Lt. RN., an officer who died at Sebastopol, is commemorated on his family's tombstone but not on the memorial itself.{{Cite web|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/44345|title=Balmaclellan Crimean War|access-date=25 October 2018|archive-date=26 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026025113/https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/44345|url-status=live}}

Near the edge of the Balmaclellan churchyard there is a rough uninscribed whinstone pillar that looks like an ancient monument, and is locally said to mark the grave of a witch.{{Cite web |url=http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/canmore.newcandig_details_gis?inumlink=64198 |title=Balmaclellan Archaeology Notes |access-date=18 November 2008 |archive-date=2 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220502221320/http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/canmore.newcandig_details_gis?inumlink=64198 |url-status=live }} Possibly the grave is that of Elspeth McEwen from nearby Dalry, who was found guilty of being a witch on her own confession and on the evidence of witnesses, and burned to death at Kirkcudbright in 1698. She was one of the last "witches" to be executed in Scotland.{{Cite web |url=http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3643 |title=A Witch's Execution |access-date=18 November 2008 |archive-date=9 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609164449/http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3643 |url-status=dead }}

To the south of the village, on the north bank of the Shimmers Burn, lies Ironmacannie Mill, a Category A listed watermill, which has been converted into a holiday cottage.{{cite web |title=About |url=http://www.thehiddenmill.com/ |website=The Hidden Mill |access-date=9 April 2022 |archive-date=18 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418194606/http://www.thehiddenmill.com/ |url-status=live }}{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB3315|desc=Ironmacannie Mill|cat=A|accessdate=9 April 2022}}

The Scots comedy, Torwatletie (1940), by playwright Robert McLellan, set during the Jacobite rising of 1715, depicts the household of a nominally fictional Laird of the district.

William Le Queux's novels The Czar's Spy (1905) and The Place of Dragons (1916) have scenes set in the area.{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8243300/John-Buchan-and-The-Thirty-Nine-Steps.html|title=John Buchan and The Thirty-Nine Steps|last=Rimington|first=Stella|journal=Daily Telegraph|date=2011-01-11|access-date=2019-10-04|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235|archive-date=23 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923111127/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8243300/John-Buchan-and-The-Thirty-Nine-Steps.html|url-status=live}}

• Bridget D'Oyly Carte DBE, (1908–1985) frequent summer visitor to Barscobe Castle.
• Sir Hugh Wontner GBE CVO, (1908–1992) was an English hotelier director of the Savoy hotel and politician. Restored the 17th-century tower house of Barscobe Castle as his holiday home.
• Richard, 12th Lord Belhaven and Stenton (1903–1961) lived at Barlay House.
• Ethel Bristowe(1862–1952) was an artist and assyriologist. Lived at Craig, Balmaclellan. In 1938 she bequeathed an art gallery to the people of Castle Douglas along with many of her paintings. Buried in Balmaclellan Cemetery.
• Ian McCulloch, actor, starred in Survivors BBC 1975–77 and also starred in Italian Gialli horror films, lives with his wife the artist Mary-Clare Cornwallis at Balmaclellan.
• Sam Heughan (born 1980), actor, star of Outlander.
• Robert Paterson (stonemason) 1715–1810 "Old Mortality"
• J B Pick, 1921–2015, author, friend and biographer of Neil M Gunn.
• Professor Ted Cowan, FRSE, 1944–2022, formerly professor of Scottish history at the University of Glasgow and director of the university's Dumfries campus.

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category|Balmaclellan}}

• [http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=1921 Balmaclellan Crimean War Memorial]
• [http://www.kirkcudbright.co/balmaclellan.asp Parish of Balmaclellan Home Page]

{{Civil parishes in Dumfries and Galloway}}

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Category:Villages in Dumfries and Galloway

Category:Parishes in Dumfries and Galloway