Tel: 01848 331510
Email: sharon@hopecottage.co.uk
| Hope Cottage Tel: 01848 331510 Email: sharon@hopecottage.co.uk |
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Local History Hope Cottage is situated in the village of Durisdeer and was originally the village inn with a cellar. The village green in the centre of the village is dominated by the Kirk, which was built around 1690 replacing an earlier place of worship on the same site and mentioned in books written by the monks of Kelso Abbey in the 13th century. The church's link with the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry has encouraged a variety of royal and interesting visitors to the village over the years. These have included the Queen, the late Queen Mother, the late Princess Margaret and Neil Armstrong the first man to set foot on the moon. The church is well known for the Durisdeer Marbles one of the finest pieces of sculpture in Scotland. Sculpted by Flemish artists they represent the recumbent figures of the second Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. In the vault beneath the marbles lie the remains of the ancient Douglases. In pre-reformation days the kirk and village was a resting place for pilgrims heading for Whithorn and St Ninian's priory. Indeed records show that in 1497 King James IV on a pilgrimage to Whithorn in Wigtownshire lodged in the village. The name Durisdeer is thought to be from the gaelic and means - 'the entrance to the forest.' The Old Roman Road winds through the village and takes the name of the Wall Path as it climbs into Lanarkshire two miles further on. A hundred years ago the population, among them many weavers, would be in the region of 80-100. Today the number is 17. Not much has changed in the village and most of the old cottages and the manse survive.  The village has remained so unspoilt that it featured as the location for the 'post office scene' in the 1979 film version of John Buchan's famous book The Thirty-Nine Steps starring Robert Powell. The house next door to Hope Cottage was the post Office. Nearby Morton Castle was also used to shoot some of the footage. The countryside around Durisdeer was very much at the centre of the Covenanter movement at the end of the 17th century and against the south wall of the Church is 'The Martyr's Grave'. Daniel McMichael is the covenanter buried here. His gravestone reads 'Here lyes Daniel McMichael shot dead at Dalveen by Sir John Dalziel for his adhering to the word of God.' The spiritual freedom the Church of Scotland enjoys today and which is the envy of many other Churches, owes much to the covenanters who were the freedom fighters of the day and hid in the surrounding hills. |
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Durisdeer
, Thornhill
, Dumfriesshire
, Dumfries & Galloway, DG3 5BJ, United Kingdom Show map |
