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Themed Short walks which tell the Story of Gatehouse

For years David Steel has led a walking tour around the central streets of Gatehouse during Gala Week. During the walk he pointed out a number of historical facts about the town. From 2023 Margaret has taken up the mantle, and here is the text to go with the in case anyone missed the walk.

These walks seem to have been very successful, so Margaret has put together a few more which are added below:

Walk No.	Title	Description
1	Gala Walk	A Walk which briefly tells the history of Gatehouse; 1 h 30mour.
2	Roon the Watter	A 6-mile walk up the Fleet valley and back; .2 hours.
3	Roon the Cape	A short walk from the Clock to Memory Lane, returning via the tennis court and War Memorial.
4	Fleet Street & Riverbank	A walk round the Anwoth side of the town.
5	Cardoness Castle & Vennie Hill	2-mile walk to Cardoness Castle and back
6	Virtual Pub Crawl	Places in Gatehouse where alcohol was once purchased and/or consumed
9	Places of Worship	Places in Gatehouse where religious services have been held.
10	Girthon Street Names	poem about street names
11	Girthon House Names
12	Anwoth Street & House Names
13	Curious Things seen in Gatehouse
14	Walking Quiz	Answers to walking quiz
15	Industrial Gatehouse	-
	-	-

The Changing Face of Gatehouse

After 2 years of Covid limitations, the Galloway Preservation Society held their AGM at The Mill on the Fleet on Saturday 23rd April 2022. To mark this return to "normal" operations, Margaret agreed to give a talk which briefly charts the evolution of Gatehouse from its early beginnings and on into the 2020s.
Unfortunately Covid has still not gone away so a decision was taken to convene a "hybrid" meeting with only a few attendees in person but with more viewing from afar via Zoom.
For the benefit of those who could not see the Zoom presentation very well but also for all those who couldn't get to Gatehouse on that day, we have created a couple of .pdf files which contain all the slides plus some of Margaret's words. Click on one of the opening slides :...

Slides only

Slides + Speaker's Notes

Gatehouse & District Timeline

Here is a timeline which shows "Significant dates in the Development of Gatehouse and District".

Booklets about Gatehouse

For a small place there have been a lot of publications and part-publications telling the story of Gatehouse. Many of the dates and other facts have been "handed down" without any formal record, so do be aware that some records may differ slightly from one source to another.
This document lists various documents that tell the story of Gatehouse. "Gatehouse Bibliography".

In 2009, as part of a regionwide "Homecoming" project, the pupils of Gatehouse Primary School wrote and illustrated a booklet about the history of their home town. Click on the cover to see the result. Click the photograph to see the reward for their efforts.

Various Publications about Gatehouse

We reproduce below transcripts of various documents about Gatehouse, hoping that we are not in breach of any copyright laws.

1911

"A Nook in Galloway".

by Thomas Newbigging

1921

"Galloway One Hundred Years Ago :
Burgh of Gatehouse".

Galloway News article by James Affleck (16th Sept.)

1945

Gatehouse Welcome Home Sale

*1947*	W & A Campbell Coach Tours	*1966*	Industrial Archaeology of Gatehouse-of-Fleet by John Butt
*1985*	The Gatehouse Experiment. by Philip Mann	*1990s*	The Story of Gatehouse of Fleet Mill on the Fleet publication
*1992*	Wheels of Wood, Wheels of Iron by Charlie Girdwood. About Gatehouse Mills.	*1994*	As We Were, The Story by Lyn Hampshire. Rutherford Hall.
*1995*	Gatehouse Memories Edited by George McCulloch. Millenium publication.	*2001*	John Faed, The Gatehouse Years by David Steel

Personal Memories

Gatehouse was estabished as a Burgh of Barony in 1795. We have a transcript of the charter under "Old Documents".

As part of the Bicentenary celebrations in 1995, the Community Council arranged for George McCulloch to edit a booklet which expressed peoples' feelings and memories about Gatehouse. This booklet was called "Gatehouse Memories" and this is listed above. We have now transcribed a copy of this document, as it reflects many of the reasons why we started this website, in order to record such feelings together with photographs. We have approval from the Community Council to be able to include a copy here.
The booklet contains a sizeable amount of poetry, more of which we intent to include under "Poetry & Lyrics".
Click here to see the pdf file of "Gatehouse Memories"

We have also collected anecdotes from some of the more senior members of the Gatehouse community, both past and present. We intend to collate these and present them here.

The Caisley's of Carney Corner. Life in Gatehouse during the early 20th century.

Various Old Guides and Accounts about Gatehouse

1793

"Observations made in a Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland"
by Robert Heron (pp.211 to 235 re Gatehouse)

1873

Stewartry Tourist Guide
by J H Maxwell, Editor of The Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser newspaper.

This U-Tube video includes brief interviews with Mrs Murry Usher, the McCulloch family and Jack Henderson Built in Britain