Laurieston
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- Published on Monday, 25 February 2013 09:36
- Written by Maggi Kaye
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Laurieston NX 680647
Laurieston village, named after an 18th century proprietor, is situated about 10 miles south of New Galloway on the A762 beside a burn called the Camelon Lane. It used to be known as Clachanpluck and dates back to the 15th century, although most of the houses in the village today are 19th century. There is an art gallery ( http://philmcmenemy.smugmug.com), but no shop and the village school closed a few years back..
There is a monument to Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1859 – 1914) who wrote “The Raiders”, “Men of the Moss Hags” and many others, who was born nearby at Little Duchrea and educated at the school here. (see ‘A Cry Across the Black Water’ and ‘Kenmure’, in Poems and Stories).
The village is on a crossroads, west-east – over the hill from Gatehouse of Fleet and on to Greenlaw, and north-south from New Galloway to Ringford. On the road north towards New Galloway you will find Woodhall Loch, a good place to see birds and go fishing! On the road west towards Gatehouse there is a magnificent avenue of trees – very worth seeing when leaves turn in autumn. Just off this road, at the western end of the avenue, there was once a fashionable spa with mineral springs at Lochenbreck. On the road east, not far beyond the village, you find Bellymark farm where you can watch the Red Kites being fed, every day at 2pm.
Laurieston Hall, just outside the village, is now a housing cooperative and conference centre, but was once a private residence; between then and now it was a TB hospital and then an old people’s home.