Local History & Genealogy

Although the town only dates back to the mid-1700s, the area around Gatehouse of Fleet has been inhabited since pre-history.

Nearby Neolithic and Bronze Age antiquities include the chambered cairns at Cairnholy and Trusty's Hill fort with its Pictish stone carvings, known as the De'il's Specs (Devil's Spectacles).

© kirkmoor.com

Cardoness Castle, the 15th century tower of the McCullochs, keeps watch over the Fleet estuary, while the roofless old kirk at Anwoth yields fascinating insights into Scotland's turbulent religious past.

Gatehouse owes its development to the entrepreneur James Murray of Broughton, whose great house, Cally - now a high class hotel - was completed in 1765. Formerly the Gait House it was simply a staging post on the important route to Portpatrick and Ireland, but from 1760-1850 it grew into a thriving centre for the cotton industry.

Water, the motive behind this expansion, was harnessed at Loch Whinyeon and brought to the mill by lades.

In 1795 gatehouse had four cotton mills, a brass foundry, brewery, brickworks, soap factory, tanneries - and double its present day population.

Today it is hard to imagine that Gatehouse was once known as "the Glasgow of the South" but traces of its industrial past remain in its buildings and street names.

The Mill on the Fleet was one of the factories built by the Birtwhistle family from Yorkshire, and its water-wheel is driven by the eastern lade that flows behind the High Street houses.

© kirkmoor.com

The Mill on the Fleet is host to events throughout the year ranging from local acts to international artists. For further information, click here.

Port Macadam, once the town's harbour, lies on the stretch of the Fleet that was canalised by order of Alexander Murray in 1824, and used to receive up to 150 ships a year. The quay is still used by small pleasure craft and masted vessels may berth at pile moorings on the seaward side of the A75 overpass.

© Tom Myers

Gallery Of Old Photographs

Click here for views of Gatehouse in the past.

Family History Archive

The Gatehouse Family and Local History Archive is a new community resource to be based initially in the YMCA Drop-in Centre. More

Publication and Papers

Recent Addition
The Birthwhistles of Craven and Galloway.
by Tony Stephens   
Tony Stephens, a local historian from Yorkshire has been researching the Birtwhistle family who started the cotton spinning industry in Gatehouse.  He has written an article on the Birtwhistles for the North Craven Heritage Trust Journal which is available by clicking here.

The English Lady
‘As a boy I remember the English lady being driven round in a carriage by Faustino Magri. That would have been in 1930 or thereabouts.’ My informant was Antonio, one of the oldest residents in Bogliaco, a village to the south of Gargnano on the western shore of Lake Garda. The carriage driver Antonio referred to had, by 1930, entered into English literature by way of an essay devoted to him in D.H. Lawrence’s book, Twilight in Italy, first published in 1916.
A paper by Colm Kerrigan relating to Mrs Alexandra Murray Baillie and her connections with Gargnano in Italy.
The paper is downloadable as a pdf file (80K) by clicking here.

Arthur of Galloway
by J E Russell.
This paper sets out to draw together such evidence as can be found, and to analyse in a logical rather than a romantic manner, to produce the historical Arthur’s origin, battles and death.  This paper locates fifty seven Arthurian sites in Scotland and suggests sites for twenty three battles fought by the historical Arthur in Scotland.
Click here for introduction and downloadable files.

A History of Gatehouse of Fleet and its District
by J E Russell.
The history of Gatehouse of Fleet is often dismissed as one of industrial failure. The fifty years around the end of the eighteenth century may well have been the most exciting and volatile in the burgh's life. but from prehistory to modern times the surrounding area has been full of incident. This epic work both provides a microscopic look at Girthon and Anwoth parishes and places the information into the wider context of Scottish and British history.

Syllodioch and the Craig Family
by J E Russell.
This paper can be downloaded as a pdf document in 3 parts.
Part 1 (1.7Mb)
Part 2 (32K)
Part 3 (60K)

Robert Burns
Robert Burns paid two visits to Gatehouse. On the first in 1793, he stopped at the Murray Arms, where he penned the first draft of ‘Scots Wha Hae’, otherwise known as Bruce’s Address to his Army at Bannockburn. On his second in 1794, he stopped at Ardwall with McCulloch, a fellow Mason in Dumfries, on his way to visit Heron at Kiroughtree. On this trip he penned two scurrilous poems about Cardoness, and the Heron Ballads, including John Bushby’s Lamentation – John Bushby was the Sheriff’s clerk in Dumfries and James Murray of Cally’s business partner.

Genealogy - local information and links to relevant local and national web sites - click here.

Artistic Heritage

The Faeds: A Remarkable Artistic Family - article by Dr David Steel. Click here.

A.R Sturrock: Scottish painter 1885-1953

Dorothy L Sayers and Galloway