Dunragit

Level crossing at Dunragit

Dunragit (Gaelic: Dùn Reicheit) is a village on the A75, between Stranraer and Glenluce in Dumfries and Galloway (previously Wigtownshire) in south-west Scotland. It grew up around the west gate of Dunragit House, an 18th century three-storey four-bay country house. It expanded considerably in the 1950s. The major employer was always the Creamery, but this is no longer in use.

There is a possible Roman cremation cemetery and two castle mottes in the village. A pit defined cursus monument, dating from Neolithic and Bronze Age times, has also recently been excavated there. It was first discovered by aerial photography in 1992.

The place-name has, not uncontroversially, been said to derive from Din Rheged meaning Fort of Rheged. This would refer to the Brythonic Dark Age kingdom of Rheged that seems to have existed somewhere in this area of the English/Scottish border between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is possible that this was one of the royal sites used by the kings of Rheged and it has been suggested as the site of the unidentified Northern Royal court Penrhyn Rhionedd, recorded in the Welsh Triads.

Inspired by the Logan Botanic Garden and Tresco on the Isles of Scilly, the 12-acre (49,000 m²) Glenwhan Garden has been created in Dunragit, since 1979, out of a gorse and bracken covered hillside. It is open to the public.

External links

• Dunragit Cursus Excavations
• Glenwhan Gardens

Coordinates: 54°52′44″N 4°53′06″W / 54.879°N 4.885°W / 54.879; -4.885