Old photograph of people outside the Post Office in Lochans, a small village around 2.5 miles South of Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Armstrongs, Bells, Moffats, Maxwells, Crichtons, Irvings and Johnstones; were just some of the clan families in the Dumfries and Galloway part of the world; who regularly rode across the divide between Scotland and England, wearing steel bonnets and bearing long lances, to wreak havoc on the other side. The Armstrongs, in particular, were a fearsome lot, at the height of their powers, they could put 3,000 fighting men in the saddle. There was the legendary feud between the Maxwells and the Johnstones. The two families fought each other over the years, ending in a bloodbath at the Battle of Dryfe Sands in Lockerbie. It was the last great border battle and one where 11 year old boys were put into the saddle to fight. When the freedom fighter William Wallace wanted help, he went to Dumfries and Galloway to raise a small army. Robert the Bruce had his castle in Lochmaben and in 1306, he killed his rival for the Scottish throne, John Comyn, on the altar of Dumfries’ Greyfriar’s Church.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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