Murray's Monument, Minnigaff, Dumfries and Galloway

Murray's Monument

Minnigaff

Dumfries and Galloway

Scotland

I thought I'd include this monument here seeing as it's so similar to Kendal's Elba and Castle Howe monuments. It's off the beaten track...on a road called the Queen's Way, the A712, that runs from New Galloway at the Northern tip of Loch Ken, South to Newton Stewart, and sandwiched between Wee Doon and Big Doon! The road is such that, if you're driving you'll probably miss it...but if you're lucky enough to be a passenger, the monument can be seen looming ahead of you as you pass by the Wild Goat Park.

Above. The monument from the East.

The monument was erected in 1835 in memory of Alexander Murray (1775 to 1813), a Scottish linguist and professor of oriental languages. Alexander was born very near to the site of the monument, in a cottage called Dunkitterick Cottage, now set up as a memorial to him.

The monument was built by William Hume, James Thomson, and Robert Hume to designs by an eminent Edinburgh lawyer called John Parker. It stands to around eighty feet tall, and its prominent position high up on the hill side gives you great views back down the valley to the East.

Above. A closer, cropped view of the monument.

This has to be one of my favourite drives.....which will have to be done in drier and sunnier weather. There is so much to see along the way, including the Glen of the Bar, the Wild Goat Park, Kenmure Castle, Clatteringshaw's Loch and Bruce's Stone, the Deer Range and miles and miles of rolling hills.