Auchencloy Memorial

[Goofy]

Anyone know anything about this?
When ws it actually built (the money was raised in 1684).
How did the stones get there?
How long did it take?
etc. etc.
p.s. it's in Galloway

[Evorg Enaj]

The Auchencloy Memorial is off The Raiders Way and is a granite obelisk where four Covenanters were shot by Government troops in 1684. Regret I wasn't around at the time of construction.

[Octavius]

I suspect that the monument to the covenanters (who were considered local martyrs) would not have been erected until post 1689. If you are serious about finding out more, perhaps you should try contacting Chapel of Cuthbert in the Parish of Kirkcudbright (film location of The Whicker Man!) for more information, or local museum/history society.

http://www.thereformation.info/kirkcudbright.htm

[Goofy]

It is Covenanters - I visited it yesterday. I was curious as to how/when actually built. It doesn't say.

[Evorg Enaj]

Just to add a little more. The Covenanters were Scottish Presbyterians who objected to English Episcopalian interference in their worship. They were called Covenanters because they supported the National Convenant of 1638, which pledged opposition to the English Bishops. When Charles II was restored in 1660 many ministers left their parishes and held illegal open-air conventicles. Troops were sent in and violence erupted on both sides. Known locally as the "killing times", one of the main persecutors of the Covenanters was John Graham of Claverhouse or "Bloody Clavers". Hundreds of Convenanters marched on Edinburgh but they were dispersed at the Battle of Rullion Green in the Pentland Hills on 22 November 1666. The Covenanters were routed again at Bothwell Bridge in 1670, and at Airds Moss near Cumnock, in 1680.The Rev. Richard Cameron, who fixed the Sanquhar Declaration to the old town cross in Sanquhar, was one of those killed in the
last battle. The Rev. James Renwick took up the cause but was captured and executed in Edinburgh in 1688, at the age of 26. In that same year, William and Mary came to the throne and relaxed the laws in an attempt to unite the country. The area then became more peaceful. There are many sad memorials to the Covenanters. At Auchencloy four or five men (the precise number is not clear) were caught and killed by "Bloody Clavers" and his dragoons in December 1684. One of them was "Black" James McMichael, who was wanted for the murder of the curate at Carsphairn.