Famous residents and visitors
Over the year there have been several Royal visitors to the parish. The Queen and Prince Philip passed through Dundrennan. James IV visited the Abbey in the 15th century.
Mary Queen of Scots
The most famous royal visitor was Mary, Queen of Scots who spent her last day on Scottish soil here on 16th May 1568.
Mary’s army was defeated at the Battle of Langside, just outside Glasgow on 13th May 1568. Mary – in a servant’s clothes and with her hair cut short – and a small entourage rode south, stopping for rest and nourishment at Sanquhar, Kenmure and Culdoach.
There are several different opinions as to where she actually stayed on the night of 15th May although the most popular is that they stayed in a farmhouse near Dundrennan, one possibility being Hazelfield House. There are stories of gifts that she gave the family when she left, and that she asked for the young boy of the household to stay in her room because he reminded her of son James (who was just over a year old).
Mary held a meeting in Dundrennan Abbey on the morning of 16th May and wrote to Elizabeth I, seeking her support, and with a diamond ring as a token of her affection. Against the advice of her counsellors, Mary and around 16 attendants set off for England in a small sailing boat, at approximately 3pm in the afternoon.
But here again we have different theories. Some believe that she left from the shore of what is now known as Port Mary. This property was at the time called Nether Riddick, and has no proper harbour. But it is most likely that they would use the good harbour which had been in constant use for many decades by the Abbey monks at the foot of Abbey Burn. The location is now part of a MOD Firing Range.
The Marie Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots) Society
Website: Marie Stuart Society (maryqueenofscots.co.uk)
Facebook: The Marie Stuart Society
Twitter: @MarieStuartSoc
Macartney
A member of an old Rerrick family , Macartney, rowed Mary, Queen of Scots across the Solway to her exile in England. Sir Halliday Macartney K.C.M.G. was a descendant of that person. He served as a doctor in the Crimean War before being drafted to Shanghai in 1859. For many years he looked after the munitions and arsenal for the Chinese Government. He married a Chinese princess and after her death married again to a French woman. He is buried in the family vault in Dundrennan Abbey.
John Copland
John Copland was born in the parish of Balmaghie in 1854 and moved into the Studio at Dundrennan when he married Miss Margaret Bennet of Fagra Mill. He was an artist and inventor. He studied optics and photography. He was a friend of E.A. Hornel of Broughton House, Kirkcudbright.
Norman C. Macmillan
Norman Macmillan was born in Dundrennan in 1880. He was one of nine children and his father was a shoemaker in the village before opening a branch of the business in Kirkcudbright.
He was a passionate Burns fan and his own poetry is written in a similar style.