New Abbey
Encyclopedia
New Abbey is a village in Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...

, south-west Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It is around 8 miles (12.9 km) south-west of Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...

. The summit of the prominent hill Criffel
Criffel
Criffel is a hill in southern Galloway, Scotland. It is 570 metres high but appears higher because of its great isolation and high relative height — it is the eighth most prominent hill in Southern Scotland...

 is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the south.

The village has a wealth of history including the ruined Cistercian abbey Sweetheart Abbey
Sweetheart Abbey
Sweetheart Abbey , south of Dumfries, near to the Nith in south-west Scotland, was a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1275 by Dervorguilla of Galloway, daughter of Alan, Lord of Galloway, in memory of her husband John de Balliol...

, founded by Lady Devorgilla in 1273 to commemorate the death of her husband John Balliol. The monks named the abbey dulce cor (Sweetheart Abbey), however, the village was named New Abbey because of the nearby Dundrennan Abbey. The village has a watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...

, the New Abbey Corn Mill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

. Loch
Loch
Loch is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or a sea inlet. It has been anglicised as lough, although this is pronounced the same way as loch. Some lochs could also be called a firth, fjord, estuary, strait or bay...

 Kindar has a crannog
Crannog
A crannog is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters of Scotland and Ireland. Crannogs were used as dwellings over five millennia from the European Neolithic Period, to as late as the 17th/early 18th century although in Scotland,...

 and the remains of Kirk
Kirk
Kirk can mean "church" in general or the Church of Scotland in particular. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it.-Basic meaning and etymology:...

 Kindar (this was the parish church until just after 1633 when it was transferred to the refectory of the suppressed Sweetheart Abbey) on an island located just outside the village.

The village is host to a saw mill, two hotels, a village shop, a coffee shop, a primary school, a doctor's surgery
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

, a village hall, a bowling green
Bowling green
A bowling green is a finely-laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of lawn for playing the game of lawn bowls.Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on them...

, a football pitch - Maryfield Park (home to Abbey Vale FC), a Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

 church, a Roman Catholic church and the Shambellie House Museum of Costume
Shambellie House Museum of Costume
The National Museum of Costume is located at Shambellie House, in New Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland and it forms part of the National Museums of Scotland....

.
The village has many walks on offer including the steps up to the Waterloo Monument
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...

. The village has two burns that flow through it including the New Abbey Pow which runs into the River Nith Estuary
River Nith
The River Nith is a river in South West Scotland.-Source, flow and mouth:The Nith rises in the Carsphairn hills of East Ayrshire, more precisely between Prickeny Hill and Enoch Hill, 7 km East of Dalmellington...

 and the Sheep Burn.

Notable people

  • Dougie Sharpe
    Dougie Sharpe
    Dougie Sharpe was a former Scottish footballer who played for Queen of the South from the town of Dumfries.-Early years:...

     - Scottish League internationalist footballer and long time servant to Queen of the South
    Queen of the South F.C.
    Queen of the South Football Club is a Scottish professional football club founded in 1919 and located in Dumfries. The club currently plays in the Scottish First Division, the second tier of Scottish football. They are officially nicknamed The Doonhamers, but usually referred to as Queens or QoS...

     from the club's days in Scotland's top division.

  • Sir William Patterson
    William Patterson
    William Patterson may refer to:* William Patterson , 19th century engineer and boat builder* William Patterson , U.S. Representative from New York* William Patterson , U.S...

    , founder of the Bank of England
    Bank of England
    The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

    , was buried in the village in 1719.

  • James MacKenzie, recipient of the Victoria Cross
    Victoria Cross
    The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

    for bravery

  • John Grierson, Local Farmer
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