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Crocketford Village

Crocketford or Nine Mile Bar as the village is also known as is mid way between Dumfries and Castle Douglas, the village boasts an excellent hotel, The Galloway Arms, a shop/post office, an Antiques and upholstry business Brass Tacks, a plumbing and heating company W.Johnstone and Sons as well as a village hall.

The history of the village goes back many years but did not really exist as a village before the arrival of the Buchanites in 1787, it was simply a meeting of drove roads some coming down from Ayr and Girvan and some from Portpatrick and beyond. In these early days the only roads were tracks created and used by cattle, pigs and sheep being driven to market or by the occasional rider on horse back and sometimes smugglers looking for a quick and easy way to their hideouts in the hills safe from the excise men such as Robbie Burns.

The Buchanites were a religious sect founded by Elspeth Buchan. Elspeth Buchan nee Simpson was born in 1738 in the parish of Fordyce in Banffshire, her mother died when she was three years old and she was sent to live with strangers. She was allowed to do more or less as she pleased and neighbours at the time felt her conduct was not proper for a young woman.

She had an active mind and when a distant relative of her mother took her in hand she learned to read, write, sew and cook these were unusual skills for Scottish girls at that time. She should have gone with this relative to the West Indies but she gave her realative the slip in Greenock. She moved to Ayr where she met her husband who was a potter, there is no evidence that they married but she took on his name and they moved to Glasgow.

They had several children only three survived. Having a husband did not stop Elspeth as far as her loose ways were concerned, they moved to Banff in an attempt to lead a quieter life, her husband set up a potting business and Elspeth opened a Dame School using the skills she had learned. She taught the Bible according to her iterpretation of it and eventually the pupils stopped coming to the school because of the way she conducted herself. After this there was not much point in staying in Banff so she returned to Glasgow to join her husband who had already moved back there after the failure of his potting business. This information was taken from the Crocketford Millenium Book "In and About Crocketford" the story of the Buchanites is a facinating one and cannot be told over a few pages of a website, I have provided links on the links page to sites with in depth information about them please take time to browse these links and learn all about a quite amazing group of people.