A stroll around Castle Douglas

Starting Point- the Market Hill Tourist Information Centre

1. 1 The Market Hill

From the low mound next to the Tourist Information Centre the wooded slopes of Keltonhill can be seen rising up in the distance beyond the British Legion and Swimming Pool [formerly Drill Hall] complex. Next to these is the Library, which dates to 1904. To the right can be seen the upper end of King Street, to the left the octagonal Wallets Mart building built around 1900 and the upper end of Queen Street. The yellow brick (from the Dalbeattie Brick Works) makes what is now the Seabright Nursery stand out.

Looking in the opposite direction, a line of Scots pines mark the site of Castle Douglas' railway station.

This area of Castle Douglas is very much the Victorian creation of railway and mart. Or, as local author S.R. Crockett put it

" In my own time, life centred about the Cross (the Town Clock), and so continued during all my life as a school boy [1867 to 1876]. But ever since, contrary to all the laws of gravitation, the town has been running faster and ever faster uphill, apparently to get a sniff of the cattle-marts on Monday, and to see the white smoke of the trains..."

The first recorded livestock auction took place on the Market Hill in 1819. In 1857, the town council built an enclosed Mart where the swimming pool now stands. This was then leased to Thomas Wallet, whose family were originally carters from Dalmellington in Ayrshire. The present site of Wallets Mart, closer to the Station Yard, was acquired later as the business took over rival concerns.

The railway from Dumfries reached the town in 1859 and was extended to Stranraer in 1861. A branch line to Kirkcudbright followed in 1864. Although the station was demolished after the was railway closed in 1965, the Station Yard remains a busy place. The sidings which could hold 200 cattle trucks are now occupied by industrial buildings. The old Goods Station is now a builders' merchants.

Sadly the Keltonhill Horse Fair, which was moved to the Market Hill (then an open field) about 150 years ago, has passed into history along with the Galloway breed of horses. Fortunately the Galloway breed of cattle has survived and Wallet's Mart still hosts their spring and autumn sales.

From the Tourist Information Centre, cross over King Street and turn right up hill. Then turn left into Cotton Street.



1.2 Cotton Street

Cotton Street descends steeply from the Market Hill past Buccleuch Scotch Beef's abattoir- the 'Slatterhoose Brae'. Just before the abattoir, where a house has now been built, there was a quarry. This would have been a source of building stone for the town. However, there are many brick built houses on Cotton Street. Most are based on variations of the same design, with pitched, rather than flat- roofed dormer style windows.

Nos 14 and 16 are of this style, but built using the yellow Dalbeattie bricks rather than the red bricks of Railway Terrace, further down the street.

Where a supermarket and car park now are, Sir William Douglas' cotton mill probably stood. After the failure of the cotton mill, this site was later occupied by Wallace's Foundry and the neighbouring Derby's Mill. The stream which failed to provide enough water to work the cotton mill ran along the back of Cotton Street. Now underground, it still runs beneath Cotton Street, across to King Street and down towards Carlingwark Loch.

On the opposite side of Cotton Street can be seen a series of schools. The largest, now a community centre, was built in 1910 by the Kelton School Board. Next to this is a school built in 1873 when the Kelton School Board was first set up. Its first headmaster was John Cowper. Cowper had previously been headmaster of the 'Free Church School'.

This school, a little further down Cotton Street is now converted into three houses [Nos 43 to 47 Cotton Street] and dates to the 'Disruption' of the Church of Scotland in 1843, when the Church split into two factions. There was strong support for the 'Free Kirk', allowing a church and school to be built in 1844. Local author S.R. Crockett attended this school after 1867. It was called 'Cowper's Schule' after its headmaster.

The earlier, parish, school was built in 1818 on Academy Street (where Castle Douglas Health Centre now stands) to replace one which had fallen into disrepair.

Next to the Free Church School is a cottage, now 49 Cotton Street. For many years this was a joiner's shop. Until recently, it was the last remaining 'unimproved' example of what was once Castle Douglas' basic housing stock. It is difficult to date, but the rough stone work around its windows is typical of the late 18th/ early 19th centuries. Until granite [from Dalbeattie] and sandstone [from Locharbriggs near Dumfries] became cheaper after the railway reached the town, local greywacke stone had to be used. This stone cannot be 'worked' to produce neat straight lines.

Crockett lived with his grandparents further down Cotton Street in a near St. John's Church. Ironically, since his grandparents were strictly religious Cameronians, this is now a licensed betting shop. St. John's was built in 1867.

A short detour can be made up Abercromby Road where a row of houses and another [United Presbyterian, 1870] church clearly show the contrast between weathered dark brown sandstone from Dumfriesshire and bluish native greywacke.

Looked at carefully, most buildings in Castle Douglas can be dated to 'before or after the railway'. Post- railway buildings are generally larger and more imposing and make use of granite, sandstone and brick as well as the local greywacke. Sandstone and granite were available earlier, but were more expensive and so used sparingly. Just to confuse things, many buildings have been altered and enlarged over the years.

So although Castle Douglas was founded in the late eighteenth century, many of its buildings reveal their later, Victorian, origins.

Return to Cotton Street and continue down hill towards

1. 3. Blackpark Road

At the foot of Cotton Street is the site of the town's gas works [1843]. To the left is Marle Street. This takes its name from the lime-rich clay Alexander Gordon drained Carlingwark Loch to reach. Used sparingly, marl was a valuable fertiliser. Over use was found to be damaging to the soil.

To the right is Blackpark Road. Blackpark farm took its name from the heavy, black, peaty soil of the surrounding marshland.

Although hardly the most picturesque area of Castle Douglas, it is worth walking along to the Blackpark Road railway bridge [now filled in]. Where Threave Rovers football pitch, the old rubbish dump [soon to become part of the golf course], the railway and sewage works now lie, a medieval parish boundary once ran along the course of a lost stream. A deep ditch cut across Castle Douglas golf course, under the railway, through the sewage works and then across the football pitch into Carlingwark Moss to find its way to the Dee along the route of the Carlingwark Lane. The stream mentioned in the Cotton Street section probably fed into this before it was diverted into Carlingwark Loch.

The boundary between Crossmichael and Kelton parishes appears to have followed the course of these lost streams. They marked the boundary between lands [in Crossmichael parish] gifted to a nunnery at Lincluden by Uchtred, son of Fergus of Galloway circa 1170 and those [in Kelton parish] which remained in the Lordship of Galloway until 1456. According to a local folktale, St. Ninian appeared to a shepherd boy here. The boy had lost a sheep on Christmas Eve. In the hope of finding the sheep, he made an offering of the last of his food at St. Ringan's Well nearby. The saint then appeared in the form of an old beggar and helped the boy find the lost sheep, which had strayed into the stream's deep ditch. [See Walk Three for more details]

This story suggests the Christianisation of an older, pagan, boundary between the 'sacred' site of Carlingwark Loch and its 'profane' surroundings. Return along Blackpark Road and continue straight on into Marle Street.

1. 3. Marle Street and Carlingwark Street

According to Crockett, Marle Street and ' Little Dublin' - the lower end of Cotton Street where several Irish families lived- were the first parts of what is now Castle Douglas to be developed. The basic 'cottage' style [as can still-just- be seen at 49 Cotton Street] of several houses in this area confirms his description of ' a little town built at the foot of a hill and ever since running a race up it.'

Carlingwark Street crosses Marle Street and lies on the route of the Old Military Road. This is the lowest part of Castle Douglas and where the roads cross, the remains of a timber and earth dam were found 200 years ago. These may actually have been the remains of a prehistoric track way across boggy ground. A similar construction was found on the far side of Carlingwark Hill. The route of Carlingwark Street / the Old Military Road ran through what are now the grounds of Carlingwark House, crossing Alexander Gordon's canal [Carlingwark Lane] by a bridge which led onto the row of houses called 'The Buchan'.

At the top of the hill was an inn. Robert Burn's stayed there in 1789. Just over one hundred years earlier, in 1685, William Auchinleck was shot by government soldiers during the 'Killing Times' outside an inn, which was also on Carlingwark Hill. There are a few old cottages here, but most of the houses are more modern. If the weather is clear, from Meadow View which runs parallel with Carlingwark Street, the Galloway Hills can be seen.

Where the street ends, turn left down the rough track towards Carlingwark Loch. This is called Crone Lane and in the field on the right once stood the Three Thorns of Carlingwark, allegedly the scene of 'Druidical rites' including human sacrifice. However since the last of the thorn trees could still be seen in early 19th century, and since Druids worshipped in groves of oak trees 2000 years ago, this seems unlikely.

Cross over the main road to enter Lochside Park

1. 4. Lochside Park

Lochside Park stretches around the north end of Carlingwark Loch. It was formerly the town common. Looking at the loch today, it is difficult to imagine how it would have appeared in the 1770s and 80s when it was the centre for Alexander Gordon's marl works. The loch must have been almost completely drained in order to expose the marl beds and allow his workmen to dig the marl out. Certainly, according to contemporary accounts, when the Carlingwark Canal was cut through Carlingwark Hill in 1765, the level of the loch dropped by between 8 and 10 feet, far enough to reveal a crannog ( a wooden round house built over water) at the south end. This crannog is once more under water.


Until recently, there were two Christian places of worship over looking the park and the loch. One of these, formerly St. Andrew's church [1869], is now the Lochside Theatre.

A short stroll through Lochside Park, turning left up past the caravan site leads to St. Ninian's Episcopal church [ 1856 to 1861] on St. Andrew Street. The church began as a mission for railway navvies. More recently it has benefited from its association with the Gordons of Threave, resulting in the addition [2001] of an award winning new church hall.

Turn left along St. Andrew Street. Of interest here is Lochvale, with its entrance up a short flight of steps. There is a date at the top right hand gable - which could be 1810, 1813 or 1815. Joseph Train [1779- 1852] lived here from 1826. Train worked, like Robert Burns, as an Exciseman. He was a friend of Sir Walter Scott's and passed on both local folklore and 'antiquities' [for example the Torrs Pony Cap] to Scott. Scott's novels Guy Mannering, Redgauntlet, the Heart of Midlothian, The Antiquary and Old Mortality all feature stories and characters based on Galloway sources supplied by Train. Unfortunately this association with Scott distracted Train from an earlier plan to write a history of Galloway.

Across from Lochvale is The Brae, originally built in 1803, but with Victorian additions. St. Andrew's Street continues towards the Town Clock, but at Queen Street, turn right.

1.5. Queen Street

The Kings Arms Hotel on the corner of Queen Street and St. Andrew Street may originally have been a farm house, predating Castle Douglas. Later, like the Douglas Arms, Crown and Imperial hotels, it became a coaching inn. In what is now its car park, there was a brewery owned by the Hewetson family. The tradition of local beer making has now been revived by the Sulwath Brewery in King Street. ( Further down Queen Street there was a tannery, but there are no plans to revive this industry).

There were other 'industrial' buildings on Queen Street, including a bakery and a blacksmiths. In a lane leading through to King Street granite setts can be found. These can be compared with the cobble stones in A.D. Livingston and Sons yard [see King Street section]. The cobbles and setts are reminders of the past importance of horse power - they give a better grip for horses hooves than smoother road surfaces do. In the summer, horse and carriage trips can be taken around the town from the Market Hill.

Queen Street is now a residential street. Several of the houses date back to the early days of Castle Douglas. Between 64 and 66 Queen Street is the date 1822 . Half way up Queen Street is St. Ringan's church, St. Ringan being an alternative version of St. Ninian - as is St. Trinian. The oldest part of St. Ringan's dates back to 1801. By 1870 it had become the Cameronian (Reformed Presbyterian) kirk and S.R. Crockett's grandparents travelled the 7 miles from Laurieston to attend it. The Cameronians used sandstone to refront the church and added its tower.

Richard Cameron was a leading figure amongst the later Covenanters who refused to accept religious changes imposed by Charles II. Indeed, on the 22nd June 1680, Cameron, his brother and about twenty others rode into Sanquhar in Dumfriesshire and declared war on the king... Although a 'spiritual' rather than a physical declaration of war, this provocative act could not be ignored. Seven troops of horse were sent to quell this 'republican' rebellion and on July 22nd both Richard Cameron and his brother were killed in a fight with government troops at Airds [ or Ayrs] Moss in Ayrshire.

Believing that they were faced with a civil war in the south west, Charles II and his brother James [briefly to be king James VII and II] tried to crush the revolt. Ultimately they failed and the Cameronians fought for king William in 1688 against the supporters of James VII/ II. These first Jacobites were led by 'Bonnie Dundee', who as 'bluidy Claverhouse' had tried to destroy the Cameronians in the Killing Times. Even as late as 1724, the Galloway Levellers drew on the local Cameronian heritage in their uprising against those they described as 'Jacobite' landowners.

Gradually, however, the politically dangerous 'radical republican' aspects of the Cameronians faded away. In time they became the rather conservative religious sect to which Crockett's grandparents belonged, as earlier had Sir Alexander Gordon who was Sheriff of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in the 1780s - hardly a position to be given to a dangerous revolutionary!

It is very difficult to associate today's 'kirk on the hill' as St. Ringan's was known, with the ferocious religious and political conflicts of the 17th century. And yet it, like so many places locally, bears witness to the deep currents of a dark and disturbing past which still run beneath the tranquil surface of the present.

Quiet Queen Street can be followed back up to Market Street. Turn left here for King Street.

1. 6. King Street

To fully appreciate King Street, it is best seen at the beginning of Castle Douglas Food Town week [usually the end of May] when the street is closed to traffic and thronged by thousands of people. Without the clutter of cars and delivery lorries, its broad, half mile long expanse is revealed.

With its hundred or so shops and businesses, King Street is the dynamic, commercial and economic, centre of the town. In turn, the street draws shoppers not only from across Dumfries and Galloway (to the chagrin of the much larger town of Dumfries) but also from across the south of Scotland and the north of England. A city like Edinburgh can match the range and diversity of Castle Douglas' shops, but not their concentration along (and beside) one main street.

However, why not, as well as peering into every shop window and craft workshop, 'lift the eyes unto the rooftops' and discover a treasure of architectural delight? For example, the many sandstone faced buildings on King Street rejoice in a riot of sculptural details. Lion heads, thistles, roses, stars and scallop shells can all be found. This last feature, the scallop shell, is actually a recent contribution to the fascinating architectural detail of King Street. Most date mainly from the 1890s and can be compared and contrasted with the more formal style of the Town Hall [1862] on St. Andrew Street. The Royal Bank [1864] illustrates the very different impression created by the use of granite.

To get a 'behind the scenes' glimpse of King Street, visit the garden behind Designs Gallery and Cafe . A conservatory has recently been built onto the cafe, creating a very pleasant spot to pause for refreshment before visiting A.D. Livingston and Sons next door. The buildings here, now a furniture restorers and makers workshop, began as a warehouse with stables. The original cobble stones can still be seen in the yard. These are just water rounded stones- quite different in appearance from the granite setts mentioned in the Queen Street section. The patchwork of differing styles of stonework and brickwork which can be seen here is fascinating.

To try to document the actual shops and businesses would be an interesting but exhausting project. Although a few, Livingstons the Tailors [1896] for example, can be traced back through time, continuing change is the rule. At the rate of two or three per year businesses close and new ones take their places, whilst some existing businesses have the confusing habit of moving from one location to another.

For shoppers, this constantly shifting pattern simply offers more interesting opportunities for 'retail therapy'. For older residents and returning exiles it offers the opportunity to spend hours arguing where exactly Mc Guffog's or Blackadder's shop once was...

Whilst visitors frequently comment on how much they appreciate the unique diversity of the Castle Douglas' shops, local residents can take them for granted. At the time of writing (April 2004), the Letters page of the Galloway News has been dominated by the threat -or opportunity- posed by a proposal to build a new supermarket in the town.

On a final point: King Street does not end at the Town Clock [the third on the same site, the two earlier ones were both destroyed by fire]. A good spot to relax after this tour of Castle Douglas is one of the town's more recent attractions- the Sulwath Brewery, which has a limited (10am to 4pm) pub licence. The Brewery occupies the site of a former bakery, on the left below the Town Clock.