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Barmagachan Wigtownshire

SOMEWHAT similar in style to Balsarroch, in Wigtownshire, this small laird’s house is pleasantly situated on a slight eminence about two miles N.W. of Borgue. It is a rubble-built structure, oblong on plan, and rises to two storeys and a garret, the foundations being solid rock. The gables of the steeply pitched roof follow a variation of crow-stepping, and the walls, which are fairly thick, are whitewashed. Most of the windows have plain edges and are very deeply set, but the two which flank the doorway are moulded. The door¬way, which lies in the centre of the North wall, is also moulded, and is surmounted by an empty panel-space. –

Internally the house has been greatly altered to suit present requirements, the accommodation being now divided up to make farm-workers’ dwellings. Like Balsarroch, there are no vaulted chambers. Low modern additions extend to the North, and it is probable that originally a small courtyard lay to that side. The lands of Barmagachan, of which this house was the manor-place, belonged from the early t6th century to a branch of the family of Maclellan. Robert Maclellan of Barmagachan, a zealous Covenanter, had his life and property declared forfeit for his share in the Pentland Rising. He escaped, however, with banishment to America. The estate was acquired from the last of the Maclellans by Samuel Lockhart in 1737.

Source: The Fortalices and Early Mansions of Southern Scotland 1400 to 1650. Tranter, Nigel. Published by The Moray Press, Edinburgh & London (1935)

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