OS Digital image of A 77461

Description OS Digital image of A 77461

Date 10/11/1978

Collection Records of the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, England

Catalogue Number SC 803816

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of A 77461

Scope and Content Allan's Cairn, Dumfries & Galloway Situated in the moorland of Kirkcudbrightshire, the monument marks the spot where a party of dragoons attacked a conventicle. At the time, those ministers harbouring Covenanting sympathies were deposed from their parishes though many continued to minister to their parishioners. Such meetings, known as conventicles, were held in remote places. Although the dragoons were spotted, the congregation could not disperse in time, and when the dragoons fired they killed both George Allan and Margaret Gracie, as well as wounding several others. Their bodies were buried at this spot by their friends under the cover of darkness. The Covenanters were those Scots who sought to defend the rights of the Church of Scotland against the imposition of bishops and Anglican rites, a policy vigorously pursued by the Stewart monarchs. They were persecuted for their refusal to accept the king's rights to impose his will on the church. Government soldiers were deployed throughout lowland Scotland, and patrolled the countryside with the aim of hunting down anyone suspected of Covenanting or disloyal sentiments, particularly those attending 'Conventicles', the illegal open-air religious meetings led by Covenanting ministers deposed from their parishes. The persecution became particularly bloody between the Restoration of 1660 and the overthrow of James VII/II in 1688, years which became known as the 'killing times'. In 1679, a group of Covenanters defeated a party of soldiers sent to break up their prayer meeting. This victory at Drumclog in Lanarkshire sparked a rebellion, and their forces briefly occupied Glasgow before being totally routed by a large Royalist army at the Battle of Bothwell Brig. Those not killed in the fighting, or the subsequent rout, were taken to Edinburgh where many were tried and executed. This memorial, erected in 1857, marks the spot where George Allan and Margaret Gracie are buried, having been executed here in 1686. It is said to stand on the site of an earlier cairn, most of which has now been lost. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/803816

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap