Nestled in the heart of Dumfries and Galloway, Moffat is a picturesque town surrounded by some of the most scenic and highest hills in the south of Scotland with great walking trails.

Moffat became a popular spa town in the 17th century because of its sulphurous waters, believed to have healing properties.

People flocked to the town for these “healing waters” which were piped from the well to what is now the Town Hall.

As locals and visitors-in-the-know are aware, this historic spa town has a unique charm and character of its own, steeped in history and culture.

And for a small town it has a lot to offer.

·      Extraordinary scenic views and peaceful places.

·      Historical buildings a-plenty.

·      The rich green space of Station Park and its boating lake.

·      Scotland’s narrowest street – it’s a tight squeeze!

·      A full-size spitfire in one resident’s garden.

·      The iconic Moffat Ram in the centre of the high street.

·      The two oldest houses dating from 1723 and 1751.

·      The Gothic style St Andrew’s Church.

·      The Old Churchyard and its historic gravestones.

·      Glorious flowerbeds all around town.

The Moffat Well

Moffat Well, situated one mile north of the town at Archbank Farm, the sulphurous water source can be traced back to 1633 when it was discovered by Rachel Whyteford, eventually leading to Moffat’s rejuvenation as a spa town. It is one of four natural mineral springs in the hills around the town.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Moffat was thronged with visitors staying to ‘take the waters’. Much of the architecture of the town developed as a result of this tourist industry. One of the consequences of Moffat’s fame as a Spa Town is the existence of the oldest pharmacy in Scotland, which still has many of its original shop fittings preserved. The Town Hall was built as the ‘Baths Hall’ to support the industry; and it is still possible to visit Moffat Well, a pleasant 1 ½ mile stroll out of the town into the hills.

Grey Mare's Tale

Grey Mare's Tale and Loch Skeen are just a few miles outside Moffat.

The waterfall is one of the UK's highest, plunging 60m from the loch.  Towering above the loch are the peaks of Lochcraig Head, Mid Craig and the summit of White Coomb (821m), with breathtaking views extending as far as the Lake District and Northumberland to the south.
Grey Mare’s Tail is a paradise for wildlife enthusiasts, who come to see the rare upland plants, peregrine falcons, ring ouzels, feral goats and, if you’re lucky, ospreys fishing in the loch. Loch Skeen is also home to Britain’s rarest freshwater fish, the vendace.

The area boasts a rich human history as well, dating back to at least the Iron Age. In the 17th century Covenanters used Watch Knowe as a lookout point in the valley to keep an eye out for government troops.

Car parking is available at the NTS carpark at the foot of the falls. There is a charge for parking. Please DO NOT park on the roadsides as this will cause a major obstruction. 

The Moffat Ram

A large bronze statue of an anatomically deficient ram proudly surveys the town’s central marketplace from his vantage point atop a sandstone fountain. Reputedly, it has more ghosts than it has ears, which would probably make it the world’s only haunted, earless effigy of a sheep!

The powerful-looking bronze ram sculpture and drinking fountain were commissioned in 1875 by a local businessman William Colvin as a gift to his native town to commemorate its long association with sheep farming and the wool trade. The artist chosen to undertake the work was a prolific and celebrated Victorian Scottish sculptor named William Brodie, whose most famous work is the statue of a faithful dog, Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh

Merlin's Cave

Merlin is known the world over as the wizard of Arthurian legend. But behind the fiction was a real man who lived in Southern Scotland in the late 6th century.

He was of royal blood, a man of learning, one of the last of the great druids living in comfort and luxury until the genocide of his clan in 573AD brought his way of life to a cataclysmic end. Suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from the horrors of the mass slaughter, he fled into the forest. For over a decade, he survived the elements, hiding in a mountain cave and living off what the forest could provide.

Today’s bare hills were then covered by the dense Forest of Celydon and Merlin found the ideal hideout, on the upper edge of the treeline on Hartfell. Beneath a rock overhang, he built a shelter and he survived here as an outlaw living off what the forest could provide – surrounded by predators – not just bears and wolves, but missionaries determined to hunt to him down as a threat to their cause. A chalybeate spring bubbles out of the hillside. Rich in iron and calcium, Merlin would have been aware of its health giving properties. Local lore still says that whoever drinks from it gains wisdom.

For over a decade Merlin lived as a hermit. As the country was converted to the new religion, he became less of a political threat. His twin sister was married to Rhydderch Hael, the High Chief of Strathclyde and secretly she managed to contact Merlin to arrange a meeting with St Mungo to try and negotiate a reconciliation. Merlin would by now have been in his sixties and feeling his age. There was nothing to lose. So in around 583AD he climbed to the top of Hartfell and crossed over into Goddeu, in the valley of the Upper Tweed.

LOCKERBIE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE

At three minutes past seven on the evening of Wednesday 21 December 1988 a bomb exploded on board Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747 en route from London to New York. The aircraft broke up almost immediately, and wreckage came to earth over a wide area. The largest parts of the aircraft landed on the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 243 passengers and 16 crew on board Flight 103 were killed, as were 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie.

The Lockerbie Bombing or the Lockerbie Air Disaster remains the deadliest aviation incident, and the deadliest act of terrorism, ever to take place in the United Kingdom. With 189 Americans killed, it was also the deadliest act of terror against the United States prior to 9/11. Those killed included nationals of 21 different countries in five different continents, and the victims ranged in age from 2 months to 82 years old. Thirty-five of the passengers were students of Syracuse University returning home for Christmas after studying at the university's London campus.

The main focus for remembrance in Scotland lies just under a mile west of Lockerbie along the A709 Lochmaben road. Dryfesdale Cemetery extends back to the north of the road, and here you find the Garden of Remembrance and Lockerbie Air Disaster Memorial. The garden lies towards the far end of the cemetery and is a beautiful and tranquil place in which to think about those who lost their lives in the skies above the town and on the ground.

The garden leads you through beds of flowers and past individual memorials to the Lockerbie Air Disaster Memorial. This is constructed of grey granite and is arranged in the form of a triptych. It is imposing in its sheer size, but sobering too, when you realise that the size of the memorial is simply a function of the number of names it carries.

Near the entrance to the Dryfesdale Cemetery is the Dryfesdale Lodge Visitors' Centre. This was originally the cemetery caretaker's cottage, but since 2003 has served as a centre for the local community, for visitors to Lockerbie and, in particular for visitors to the Garden of Remembrance and Lockerbie Air Disaster Memorial. A number of rooms have been converted to accommodate information about the area, and about the the air disaster. The visitors' centre is also the home of the Book of Remembrance.

Hallmuir Ukrainian Chapel

Beside a minor road a mile and a half south of Lockerbie stand a few weatherworn prefabricated huts. They are all that remains of the Hallmuir Prisoner of War Camp. Brown tourist signs from the edge of Lockerbie help visitors find a destination that could otherwise be hard to find. The reason for seeking out the site can be found in one of the huts which, though completely unremarkable from the outside, houses the superb Hallmuir Ukrainian Chapel.

The Hallmuir Ukrainian Chapel is a chapel built at a Hallmuir prisoner of war camp near Lockerbie in Scotland. After the Second World War, this camp housed Ukrainian soldiers from the Galician Division of the Waffen SS. The soldiers built the chapel from converted army huts. It was listed in 2003 as a Category B building.

The chapel became a site for collected donations to help Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.

The Moffat Spitfire

Moffat is unique for all sorts of things: its dark sky status, having Scotland’s narrowest street and one of its shortest – but also for the Moffat Spitfire. It’s a full-size, home-made model of the iconic, aerobatic aircraft sitting just casual in a regular front garden. Grounded but flying high on its celebrity.

The owner, Hamish MacLeod, a retired GP, was a former pilot who had a passion for this famous aircraft. When Hamish was in Florida on an American airbase for an instrument rating and refresher course 28 years ago, he was given the opportunity to fly a spitfire and grabbed it with both hands. Hamish says, it’s ‘just as beautiful to fly as it is to look at’. He had it delivered in sections to his house in Moffat and put it together with the help of friends.

A fitting tribute to the second world war and all those who served in it, it’s on display for everyone to admire it. It has attracted many visitors over the years and raised thousands of pounds for the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund and other good causes.

What’s the connection to Moffat? Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding, who was credited as masterminding the Battle of Britain in 1940 and known as the ‘architect of deliverance’, was born in Moffat. Every year there’s a flyover by a spitfire in his honour – one of the highlights of Moffat’s calendar.

Will it remain in Moffat indefinitely? Hamish has left it in his will to the people of Moffat and to the residents of Dowding House (the largest memorial to Dowding and a retirement home for ex RAF personnel) which will be its new base. Dowding House was once a school which was founded by Dowding’s father and where Hamish taught as a medical student. 

Another memorial to Dowding stands in nearby Station Park.

Leadhills

Leadhills, and neighbouring Wanlockhead, are Scotland’s highest villages. They are just a few miles north of Moffat. Leadhills is the oldest and highest of the two villages that were both founded for the mining of Lead, gold, silver and other minerals. Lead from the area has been mined there since neolithic times and all the gold for the Scottish Crown Jewels came from Leadhills. 

The Leadhills Miners' Library (also known as the Leadhills Reading Society), founded in 1741 by 21 miners, the local schoolteacher and the local minister. The library is the oldest subscription library in the British Isles; and is of significant international historical and geological importance. 

Leadhills Golf Club, instituted in 1891, is the highest in Scotland. The nine-hole course offers a considerable challenge as the winds can be high and unpredictable as they are channelled between the hills.

The grave of John Taylor is also available to visit in the cemetery. John was 137 years of age at the time of his death, Taylor's grave (shared with his son, Robert) even attracted the attention of the BBC. His walking stick can be seen in the Library.

The Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway runs at weekends only between Easter and September. The railway is 1,498 feet (457 m) above sea level and is the highest adhesion railway in the UK. 

Moffat Museum

Moffat Museum is open every Thursday to Monday from April to October. Entry is free

Originally established in Moffat’s old bakehouse, Moffat Museum provides a fascinating insight into the town’s history – from early Roman times, the Border Reivers, the heyday of its coaching era, to the discovery of the Well and Moffat’s popularity as a spa town.

The generosity of an Australian benefactor, John Moffitt, along with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Clyde Wind Farm, Foundation Scotland and the local community, enabled the Museum Trust to purchase the adjoining building and undertake a big modernisation project. The new and expanded Museum opened in 2013 and now features stunning artefacts on loan from the Museum of Scotland.

The Museum is on two floors. The lower floor illustrates Moffat’s history through several key exhibits. Included is a Neolithic bow found in the hills above Moffat and a Roman brooch found on Ericstane Brae. The upper floor has eight displays covering different aspects of Moffat’s history, such as education, agriculture, the history of the Spa and famous people associated with Moffat. An outside yard hosts a display of agricultural tools and exhibits relevant to Moffat’s railway history.

Moffat Community Nature Reserve

Moffat Community Nature Reserve is a wonderful wildlife reserve that has made its home in a former quarry.

There’s something to see whatever time of year you visit. Look for the richly coloured insects, dragonflies, butterflies and bumblebees in the wildflower meadow in spring and early summer, the wading birds, Curlew, Snipe and Lapwing in winter or the Little Grebe, Geese and Mute Swans feeding on the lochan all year round.

The reserve is open throughout the week from 8.00am to 8.00pm. Entry is free.

You can find the reserve by following the brown signs for the Community Nature Reserve from the A701 between Moffat and the M74.

Images taken from the Moffat Community Nature Reserve Website

Other interesting facts about Moffat

Moffat has quite a few other interesting places and sights to discover. These include:

• The World's narrowest Hotel (The Famous Star)
• Scotland's narrowest street (Syme Street)
• Scotland's shortest street (Chapel Street)
• Moffat is Europe's first Dark Sky Town
• Moffat is Scotland's Eagle Town
• The Knights Templar owned almost all of Moffat during the 12th Century

What else can you find out about this fantastic fascinating town? If you have found out something that we haven't mentioned, why not let us know in our Facebook Group?

You can find out more about Moffat at https://visitmoffat.co.uk/