Lockerbie and District Rotary Club hosted local naturalist and historian George Trudt at their last two meetings when he described the significant landmarks and the rich history abounding in the Dryfe Valley.
He introduced members to a once thriving and industrious community down the length of the river from its source up at Loch Fell to the point some 18 miles later when it flows into the river Annan.
George lived in Boreland for several years. He has walked the paths and fished in the burns and knows the area intimately. To this, he has added an intense interest in its history and the events which shaped the people who lived there. Tales of hiding cattle from the Reivers in the steeper parts of the valley in the 16th century; the role of Claverhouse against the Covenanters in the 17th century. He spoke of the many luminaries who had dwelt in the area or who had passed through it over the years
Dryfehead and Finegal lay on one of the ancient drove roads which crisscrossed Scotland. This one connected Nithsdale to Eskdalemuir and hence Roxburgh. The Dryfe valley had an industry fitting shoes to the cattle being herded on these drove roads. James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, spoke of Waterhead of Dryfe being a large farm at the start of the 1800s with a dairy of some 70 cows, huge by the standards of the day. Smugglers and travellers were also plentiful and there were several inns and hostelries to service this traffic.
The area was productive, and there was great rivalry between mills at Hutton and Sibbaldbie and further down at Sandbed. There was a dyeing mill at Berryscaur. The school at Hutton had 99 pupils at one time with Greek and navigation on the curriculum which may have been associated with the inn at Nether Boreland being called the Anchor Inn. During World War II, troops were based at Berryscaur for artillery training and Dryfeholm House was a military hospital.
Every site had a story and Gillesbie was famed for its roe deer which were hunted to extinction in the 19th century. George could tell the history of all the grand houses which were sited along the valley. At Sandbed, a kirk was washed away in a flood and rebuilt only to be washed away 100 years later. Further downriver at Dryfesdalegate we have the site of the Battle of Dryfe Sands in 1593, a gory encounter between the Johnstones and the Maxwells.
Soon after, the Dryfe joins the River Annan near Ladyward, opposite the ARLA milk factory. There was a ferry and an inn there before the bridge was built. George delighted in the detail of his talk and spends much of his time photographing the abundance of wildlife up the Dryfe Valley.
He delights in the return of the deer, otters and badgers to the valley on his walks, perhaps surprising a deer sipping water in a burn or an ermine stoat stalking a dipper on a rock.
A marvellous tale of what is on our doorstep and so rarely appreciated. Rotarian Tom McGuiness gave the vote of thanks.