Baldoon Castle

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Baldoon Castle, the corner of one crumbling tower, with a few yards of ivy-clad wall, in Kirkinner parish, Wigtownshire, 3 furlongs from the S bank of Bladenoch river, and 1¾ mile SSW of Wigtown. Hence Scott derived the ground-plot of the Bride of -Lammermoor, for here, according to its Introduction and to Chambers' Domestic Annals (ii. 326-328), the final act of the real tragedy was played in August 1669, with Janet Dalrymple, Lord Stair's daughter, for 'Lucy,' David Dunbar of Baldoon for ` Bucklaw, ' Lord Rutherford for 'Ravenswood,' and so forth. But antiquaries now reject the ` bonny bridegroom ' version of the story, conceding only that the bride died broken-hearted just a month after her bridal in Glenluce kirk. David Dunbar is described as an agricultural improver; and at the present day the Baldoon Mains are famous for their dairy-farms. Eastward in Wigtown Bay are the Baldoon Sands, from 1½ to 2 miles broad at low-water; and northward is Baldoon Quay, a small proprietorial harbour on the Bladenoch. See J. G. Murray's Stair Annals (1875), and Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc., 1875, pp. 53-60.

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Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer