Dumfries

Overview

'The Queen of the South', Dumfries is a historic country town in the far southern reaches of Scotland, most famed for its connection with Scotland's national bard Robert Burns.

The charming old country town of Dumfries is situated on the banks of the River Nith, near the border with England. It has a long and often bloody history dating back before its chartering as a royal burgh in the 12th century.

Lady Devorgilla, matriarch of the powerful Balliol family, was a great benefactress to the town. She paid for the building of the first bridge over the River Nith as well as the famous Sweetheart Abbey, five miles south of the town, which was founded in 1273 to honour her late husband. It was in Dumfries' Greyfriars monastery in 1306 that Robert Bruce murdered John Comyn, ally of the Balliols and Bruce's chief rival for the then-vacant Scottish throne, precipitating Bruce's coronation and the long struggles of the Scottish War of Independence. The town's current Greyfriars Church shadows the site of the original monastery.

Over the centuries, Dumfries was repeatedly visited by marauding English armies, the Covenanters, witchhunters and the Jacobite army. Nevertheless, it continued to prosper as a market town and has been the home of several famous people, including J.M. Barrie, author of 'Peter Pan' and of course, Robert Burns. Dumfries has a number of sites associated with the bard who lived in the town in his later years and died there in 1796. His former house now serves as a museum dedicated to him while the town also boasts his favourite 'howff' or drinking haunt, the Globe Inn.