Enterprise, Inspiration Mark Visits To Dumfries Dumfries And Galloway
Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, died in Dumfries, but he lives forever thanks to some of the devoted inhabitants of Dumfries - Dumfries and Galloway.
For example, the world's first savings bank, now a museum, was founded by the Rev. Henry Duncan at Ruthwell in 1810. Scotland's first penny newspaper the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser, was founded in 1843.
What's more, a local home, Moat Brae, is held to be the place where "Peter Pan" was born. According to his own account, Barrie befriended the sons of a local solicitor, the Gordon boys, whose family lived at Moat Brae. Together their shared a lively sense of fantasy and adventure, playing at being pirates in the garden of Moat Brae. Thus was the seed of "Peter Pan" planted in Barrie's imagination.
Its connections with Scotland's famed bard are merely a few of the historic events and landmarks around Dumfries and Galloway that make it such an inspiring destination for visitors and residents alike.
Six years later, the first academic lectures in Great Britain (possibly in the world) for the nursing profession were given at the Crichton Royal, Dumfries in 1854. These occurred six years before Florence Nightingale, considered the mother of modern hygienic nursing, began to teach her methods for germ control and patient care.
With agriculture as a mainstay of the local economy, it's no surprise that Dumfries and Galloway also is home to world's most highly valued ram, sold at Newton Stewart and to a world-record price of 22,000 guineas for a Galloway bull sold in February 1989.
Today Dumfries, with a population of 31,600, is the largest town in the region, followed by Stranraer on Solway Firth with around 11,000 and Annan with some 8,300. Dumfries and Galloway combined have a population of some 148,000.
These highlights and more combine to make Dumfries and Galloway a fascinating area for a holiday trip.
