Overview of Beattock

A former railway village in Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway, Beattock lies on the Evan Water, 2 miles (3 km) southwest of Moffat and 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Dumfries. The number of ancient forts in the neighbourhood testify to its strategic importance from Iron Age to mediaeval times, but its development in more recent times is linked to rail and road transport. The notoriously steep Beattock Bank proved difficult for northbound stage coaches travelling on Thomas Telford's new road from Carlisle to Glasgow in the early 19th Century and was no less problematic for the steam trains of the Caledonian Railway which followed this route from 1847. Between 1883 and 1954 a branch line from Beattock served the spa town of Moffat and by 1965 the village had been largely bypassed by the new A74 road which was later upgraded to a motorway. Buildings of interest include the parish church (1798), the Beattock Outdoor Centre (1875), Beattock House (1870), 16th century Lochhouse Tower and the site of a Roman fortlet at Milton 1¼ miles (2 km) to the southeast.