Overview of Dalbeattie

A planned village in Dumfries and Galloway, Dalbeattie lies in the valley of the Urr Water, 14 miles (22 km) southwest of Dumfries and adjacent to Dalbeattie Forest. In 1325 nearby Buittle was chartered as a burgh of barony near the site of Buittle Place which had been the home of Lady Devorguilla, mother of John Balliol the pretender to the Scottish throne. In the 17th century there was a Mill of Dalbety on a stream known as the Kirkgunzeon Lane, but it was not until the 1780s that the village of Dalbeattie appeared when Alexander Copeland established a water-powered paper mill here. In the 19th century local grey granite was quarried and shipped out, first by boat from Craignair Bridge and later by rail. Stone blocks were cut for the building of Liverpool Docks, the Thames Embankment and the Eddystone Lighthouse as well as export throughout the world, but by the 1970s most of Dalbeattie's granite was in the form of road chippings. Dalbeattie has a museum situated on Southwick Road.

Natives of Dalbeattie include Lieutenant William Murdoch (1873 - 1912), First Officer of the Titanic.