Our easy-to-use website contains details and locations of places to visit around this area. Please select from:

	Places to Stay: Bed and Breakfast Hotels and Guest Houses Pubs with Accommodation Self Catering
	Places to Eat and Drink: Cafes, Coffee & Tea Shops Pubs serving Food Restaurants and Bistros
	Places of Interest: Places to Visit
	Gardens Centres: Garden Centres/Nurseries
	Specialist Shops: Antiques & Restoration Arts and Crafts Fashions Gifts Home and Garden Jewellery Food and Drink Shops

Sanquhar

Sanquhar (pronounced San-kar) is a small town in Upper Nithsdale that was created a royal burgh in 1598. The name comes from the language of the ancient Britons, and means “Old Fort”. The site of this fort was on a small hill to the north of the town, close to St Bride’s Church which was built in 1824. Within the church is a small collection of stone carvings, including one of St Nicholas and a medieval cross.

The Sanquhar Tolbooth was built to the designs of William Adam in 1735 as a town hall, schoolroom and jail, and now houses a small museum. It was in a house opposite the Tolbooth that William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock, lodged while on his way south to be tried and executed for his part in the Jacobite uprising. There is a plaque on the wall commemorating his stay. In Main Street is Sanquhar Post Office, dating from 1712, the oldest continuously used post office in the world. The Southern Upland Way passes through the burgh, and the Sanquhar Historic Walk takes you round many of the town’s attractions and historic sites.

To the south of Sanquhar are the forlorn ruins of Sanquhar Castle, originally an old Crichton stronghold. It fell into the hands of the Douglases, and it was here that William Douglas, who wrote the original version of the song Annie Laurie, was born in 1672. The castle was founded in the 11th century, though what you see now dates from much later.

In the 17th century, Sanquhar was a Covenanting stronghold. Charles II had imposed bishops on the Church of Scotland, and the Covenanters took up arms to keep the church Presbyterian. These times were known as the “Killing Times”, and many people were executed for following the dictates of their conscience. One of the most militant Covenanters was Richard Cameron, who rode into Sanquhar in 1680 and attached what became known as the “Sanquhar Declaration” to the Market Cross. This disowned the king, which was effectively treason. Cameron was subsequently killed at the Battle of Airds Moss in the same year.

The Riding of the Marches is an ancient ceremony, and takes place every August. The burgh boundaries are ridden by horse riders to ensure that adjoining landowners have not encroached onto burgh or common land - a common occurrence in olden times.

A series of plaques on various buildings takes you on a historic walk round the town, with a leaflet being available in the local tourist office.

One of the more unusual cottage industries in Sanquhar during the 18th and 19th centuries was the hand knitting of gloves, and the intricate patterns soon made the gloves popular throughout the country. Up until the 1950s these patterns had never been published. Now it is possible once more to buy both hand and machine knitted gloves and garments made from the distinctive patterns.