Old Photographs Lochmaben Dumfries and Galloway Scotland

Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of Lochmaben; Scottish Gaelic: Loch Mhabain, a small town and civil parish and site of a once important castle, located four miles west of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway. This area has been inhabited since earliest times due to its strategic position on the routes from England to Scotland and Ireland. After the Roman departure from the area around Dumfries the locale had various forms of visit by Picts, Saxons, Scots and Danes. At some point in the 13th century the Bruces built a castle, probably a Keep, at Lochmaben, the remains of which now lie under a golf course. It is claimed that King Robert I of Scotland was born there, which is why the town adopted the motto " From us is born the liberator king " on its coat of arms. This claim cannot be ruled out, but his birthplace was more likely Turnberry Castle. Bruce certainly battled the English over this area during the Wars of Scottish Independence. The Battle of Lochmaben Fair was fought on 22 July 1484: a force of 500 light horsemen led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas invaded Scotland, but were defeated. The town prospered and become a Royal Burgh in 1447, and a Royal Charter in 1579. Though its importance waned, it had sufficient resources to build a substantial Tolbooth, later the Town Hall, in 1723. The fountain was presented to the Royal Burgh by a sister of the Laird of Halleaths in 1911 in memory of King Edward the Seventh. Originally located in front of the Bruce Statue in the High Street, it moved to its present position at Townhead. The Combination Hospital here was also known as the Sanatorium. The railway came in 1863, with Lochmaben a stop on the Dumfries to Lockerbie line, and brought easy communication both north and south. It closed to passengers in 1952 and to freight in 1966. Corncockle Quarry was a large and historically important sandstone quarry near Lochmaben tone from here was used in the late Victorian era to build tenements in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and also to construct brownstones in New York , America