Douglas Valley heritage and tourism

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Heritage & Tourism

The Douglas Archive

Old Douglas (conservation area ) showing the

Stable Lake ( first pond ), top left, and the A70, top right

Cameronian Scottish Rifles

See Cameronian SR page

Cameronian Collection - Hamilton

Cameronian Cairn © of Lindsay Addison

Castle Dangerous

Castlemains

Church

St Bride's Church

Old St Bride's Church dates to the late 14C. The Chancel survives as a ruin from this period while the tower was built in 1618. The church houses the tombs of the Douglas family and was renovated in the 1880s on the orders of the Earl of Home. The clock is said to have been gifted by Mary, Queen of Scots.

Douglas’s fine old clock on the spire of the equally fine old St Bride’s Church, is possibly the oldest working clock in Scotland.

As far as it is known the workings are the original and having had a new wheel piece replaced in the last 100 years. The bell ropes are of coarse renewed when required.

After an inspection by two Ministry of Works officials some years ago, they commented how the pendulum was added after 1565 and that in their opinion the “roots” of the pendulum were probably connected to the clock.

The clock, famous for its good timekeeping through the centuries, chimed three minutes BEFORE the hour in accordance with the Douglas motto “Jamais Arriere” …never behind.

' Mausoleum of the Black Douglases '

This ruin was once the parish church of Douglas. The remains consist of the choir (housing the altar) and the south aisle of the nave; both late 14th century in date, with a clock tower added in the 16th century. The clock, dating from 1565, is probably the oldest working in Scotland. The choir was re-roofed in the 19th century.

Douglasdale was the original power-base of the ‘Black’ Douglases. Modest landowners in the 13th century, they gained enormously through their support of Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Independence with England in the early 14th century. By 1400, they were the most powerful family in southern Scotland. But this position brought them into conflict with the Stewart king, James II, and in 1455 they were overthrown.

Their castle at Douglas was finally destroyed by fire in 1755, but a tangible reminder of them still exists here, for the parish church became their mausoleum. Three fine wall tombs survive in the choir, together with memorials from more recent times.

Douglas Heritage Museum will be delighted to welcome visitors.

St Bride's as it may have looked in the 16th century

"Jamais Arriere"

Coat of Arms on the wall of St Bride's underground tomb

St Bride's tombs © of Lindsay Addison

Clan Douglas Society of North America

The Dogs Grave

Not far from Castle Dangerous, overlooking the flood waters near by, in amongst some trees is a grave to two dogs, Stracathro and Spider. Now ageing, weathered and more than a little forgotten, it stands no more than a few centimetres high and about a metre long and half a metre wide.

Below are the fading inscriptions on the stone.

Monuments

Earl of Angus

The Earl of Angus statue was erected to mark the bi-centenary of the raising of the Regiment. It also commemorates the death of the Cameronian Regiment's first Colonel, the Earl of Angus, at the Battle of Steinkirk (Flanders) in 1692. On 17 May 1992 it was given by the Cameronian Trust into the care of the

National Trust for Scotland

James Earl of Angus © of Lindsay Addison

Inscriptions around the base of statue read as follows...

JAMES

EARL OF ANGUS

SON OF

THE MARQUIS OF DOUGLAS

BORN 1671

KILLED AT THE BATTLE

OF SEINKIRK

WHEN IN COMMAND OF

THE CAMERONIAN REGIMENT

1692

THE TWENTY SIXTH

OR
CAMERONIAN REGIMENT

RAISED BY

THE EARL OF ANGUS

WAS FIRST MUSTERED

NEAR THIS SPOT

MAY 14 1889

THIS STATUE

TO COMMEMORATE

THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY

OF THE RAISING

THE SWENTY SIXTH

OR
CAMERONIAN REGIMENT

WHICH BEGAN

IN 1881

THE FIRST BATTALION

THE CAMERONIANS

(SCOTTISH RIFLES)

WAS ERECTED

1892

THOMAS BROCK R.A.

SCULPTOR

Polish Memorial Garden

Polish Monuments and Memorial Garden

WHEN GERMANY INVADED FRANCE IN THE SUMMER OF 1940 THE POLISH SOLDIERS WHO HAD FLED FROM THEIR HOMELAND WERE EVACUATED TO BRITAIN.

MANY OF THEM WERE WELCOMED TO THE VILLAGE OF DOUGLAS, WHERE THEY SETTLED INTO VILLAGE LIFE AND MADE LONG-LASTING FRIENDSHIPS.

USING SOME OF THEIR MANY TALENTS, THE POLISH SOLDIERS CONSTRUCTED THREE MONUMENTS AS REMINDERS OF THEIR TIME IN DOUGLAS.

THE MONUMENTS WERE SITUATED IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE VALLEY.

IN 2002 THE MONUMENTS WERE BROUGHT TOGETHER ON THIS SITE SURROUNDED BY A MEMORIAL GARDEN.

To the left is a copy of one of two small manuscripts that were discovered during the resiting of the monuments. They were concealed in time capsules within the monuments themselves. On each they signed a message of friendship and goodwill to the people of Douglas.

Museum

Douglas Heritage Museum

( St Sophia's Church )