Closeburn

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Closeburn
Dumfriesshire
Closeburn War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 376709.jpg
Closeburn
Location
Location: 55°12’43"N, 3°44’2"W
Data
Population: 1,119  (2001)
Local Government
Council: Dumfries and Galloway
Parliamentary
constituency:
Dumfries and Galloway

Closeburn is a village in Dumfriesshire, on the A76 road 2½ miles south of Thornhill. In the 2001 census, Closeburn had a population of 1,119.

Between 1849 and 1961 the village had a railway station. Although Closeburn railway station is now closed, the Glasgow South Western Line still runs through the village. The nearest stations are at Sanquhar and Dumfries.

The village is the former location of Wallace Hall Academy, founded in 1723 and now based in Thornhill. The former schoolhouse, built in 1795 and incorporating the original buildings from the 1720s, is a Category A listed building.[1]

About the village

Less than a mile east of the village is Closeburn Castle, a Category B listed tower house that was until 1783 the family seat of the Kirkpatrick family.[2][3]

The River Nith is on the western boundary of the parish of Closeburn. The eastern part of the parish contains several hills, including the 2,286-foot Queensberry, at the southern end of the Lowther Hills, part of the Southern Uplands.

Several streams flow through the area, and the gorge and waterfall at Crichope Linn, three and a half miles north of Closeburn was chosen by Walter Scott in his novel Old Mortality as the lair of John Balfour of Burley.[4]

The hamlet of Gatelawbridge, 2½ miles east of Thornhill, is on the boundary of Closeburn and Morton parishes near Crichope Linn.

Outside lniks

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References