Annandale
Annandale is the valley of the River Annan; one of the great dales of Dumfriesshire. It cus through the middle of the county and provides the major route from Carlisle and the west coast north through the Southern Uplands to Clydesdale and thence to Glasgow.
Annanhead, the source of the Annan is in the Southern Uplands, north of Moffat, and the river and its dale run south from here to Annan on the Solway Firth. In its higher reaches it separates the Moffat Hills on the east from the Lowther Hills to the west. A 53 mile long-distance walking route called Annandale Way [1] running through Annandale (from the source of the River Annan to the sea) was opened in September 2009.[2]
The dale is famous for its connection with Ben Jonson, whose family hailed for this dale, and Robert the Bruce, as the de Brus family was given this land by King David I in 1124, as one of the border lordships when David became Prince of the Cumbrians. Along with Carrick, these lands acted as a buffer between the quasi-independent Lordship or Kingdom of Galloway and David's lands on the Clyde and in Cumberland. More prosaically though the dale is the main route between Glasgow and the south.