Dunscore


Dunscore is a small village which lies northwest of Dumfries on the B729, in Dumfriesshire, in the District Council Region of Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland.
The village consists of about 150 people, has a community run pub, a post office and a tea room. The village hosts a gala event every August.
It is the birthplace of the Church of Scotland missionary Jane Haining, one of the only ten Holocaust victims from Scotland.
The Dunscore railway station opened in 1905, and closed to passengers in 1943 and to goods in 1949. The station was on the Cairn Valley Railway which ran to Moniaive from Dumfries.
Craigenputtock Estate is within the Civil Parish of Dunscore.

Etymology

The name Dunscore is of Cumbric origin, formed of the elements dīn 'fort' and *ïsgor 'fortification, rampart'. William J. Watson proposes the meaning "fort of the bulwark or rampart".

The Church

There is a parish church of Dunscore.
The long abandoned Dunscore Old Kirk was located near Fardingwell Farm, between Robert Burns' Ellisland Farm and Robert Ferguson's "Isle Tower".
In Thompson's 1832 map, Ellisland was spelt "Elliesland" and was next to Isle Tower.
The 'Laird of Lag's Tomb' is located at the surviving "Dunscore Old Kirk" burial ground, as is the grave of Captain Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, a close associate of Robert Burns.
The church was rebuilt into a heritage centre in 2017, and features information on the Dunscore-born Jane Haining.