Parton, Dumfries and Galloway


Parton is a hamlet situated on the banks of the River Dee in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

Notable buildings

Parton Row is the name of the cottages rebuilt in 1901 by the laird, Benjamin Rigby Murray, of Parton House. One was used as a library and reading room.  The clock tower was added to an existing byre but later converted to a communal laundry. In later years the building nearest the hall was the village shop and post office and was the home of Sam Callander, who devoted much of his life to promoting the memory of Maxwell.
Murray also built the village hall in 1908 with the motto over the entrance " Floreat Partona ".
Parton railway station was part of the Portpatrick line, but closed in 1965. The station building was converted as a private house.

Parton Kirk

Parton Kirk is by Walter Newall and was built in 1832–33. Of the old church of circa 1593 only the east gable wall survives and serves as part of the burial enclosure of James Clerk Maxwell and his wife Katherine Clerk Maxwell and the Rigby-Murrays of Parton. The oak pulpit from Old Parton Church dated to 1598 is now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. It bears the initials 'I.G.', for John Glendonwyn of Parton, patron of the parish church whose arms are included in the carved decoration.
Prominent mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell lived at the nearby Glenlair House. He was famous for developing formulae governing electricity and magnetism as well as the Maxwell distribution in the kinetic theory of gases. He is commemorated by a monument beside the Parton war memorial in front of the church.
Also buried in the kirkyard is Maxwell's father John Clerk Maxwell of Middlebie and Elma Yerburgh of the Thwaites Brewery family from Blackburn, who lived at nearby Barwhillanty. Here also is buried Dr David Summers Physicist and poet of Napier University, Edinburgh. Dr Summers lived in Parton Row.

Estates