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
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	Specialist Shops: Antiques & Restoration Arts and Crafts Fashions Gifts Home and Garden Jewellery Food and Drink Shops

Westerkirk

The parish of Westerkirk lies a few miles north west of Langholm, and it was here that Thomas Telford the great civil engineer was born in 1757.  The son of a shepherd, he left school at 14 and was apprenticed to a stone mason in Langholm. However, he was destined for greater things and rose to be the greatest civil engineer of his generation, building the Ellesmere Canal, the Caledonian Canal and the Menai Straits Bridge in Wales.

Within the parish is the unique Bentpath Library, founded in 1793 for the use of the antimony miners who used to work in the nearby Meggat Valley. It is still in use today, though only the people of the local parishes may borrow from its stock of 8000 books. On his death in 1834, Thomas Telford bequeathed money to it.