The Devil's Beef Tub (Marquis of Annandale's Beef-Tub, Beef-Stand, MacCleran's Loup) is a deep, dramatic hollow in the hills north of the Scottish town of

Moffat Moffat ( gd, Mofad) is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire, now part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland. It lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town. ...

. The hollow is formed by four hills, Great Hill, Peat Knowe,

Annanhead Hill Annanhead Hill is a summit in the Moffat Hills of Scotland. It lies on the boundary between the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway, north of Moffat, in the Southern Uplands. Annanhead is one of four hills encircling the Devil's Beef ...

and Ericstane Hill. It is one of the two main sources of the

River Annan The River Annan (''Abhainn Anann'' in Gaelic) is a river in south-west Scotland. It rises on Annanhead Hill and flows through the Devil's Beef Tub, Moffat and Lockerbie, reaching the sea at Annan, Dumfries and Galloway after about 40 mile ...

Etymology

The unusual name derives from its use to hide stolen cattle by the Border Reivers of the Johnstone clan who were referred to by their enemies as "devils"; it is also called ''Marquis of Annandale's Beef-Tub'' (or ''Beef-Stand'') after the

Lord of Annandale The Lordship of Annandale was a sub-comital lordship in southern Scotland ( Annandale) established by David I of Scotland by 1124 for his follower Robert de Brus. The following were holders of the office: * Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale, ...

, chief of the raiding "loons" (here meaning "lads", rather than "

lunatic Lunatic is an antiquated term referring to a person who is seen as mentally ill, dangerous, foolish, or crazy—conditions once attributed to "lunacy". The word derives from ''lunaticus'' meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck". History The te ...

s"); the name may also refer to the resemblance the valley bears to a tub used for preserving meat.The terms meat tub and beef tub are similar, and discussed at The Scots Dialect Dictionary, first published 1911 by Chambers and compiled by the lexicographer Alexander Warrack, gives the following; “deil’s beef-tub n. a roaring linn”. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the local town of Moffat was famed for its sulphur baths. The sulphurous water emanated out of the ground at the Moffat Well adjacent to the Devil’s Beef Tub. This was then transported to the town bath house where its efficacious properties were enjoyed by the public. It would appear that beef-tub is a corruption of bathtub.

History

On 12 August 1685 fleeing

covenanter Covenanters ( gd, Cùmhnantaich) were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from '' Covena ...

John Hunter attempted to escape pursuing

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

s by running up the steep side of the Beef Tub. He failed, was shot dead on the spot, and is buried in Tweedsmuir kirkyard (churchyard). A monument to Hunter stands on the southwest rim of the Beef Tub.

Literature

In his novel ''

Redgauntlet ''Redgauntlet'' (1824) is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, one of the Waverley novels, set primarily in Dumfriesshire, southwest Scotland, in 1765, and described by Magnus Magnusson (a point first made by Andrew Lang) as "in a sense, the ...

'', novelist

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

said, "It looks as if four hills were laying their heads together, to shut out daylight from the dark hollow space between them. A damned deep, black, blackguard-looking abyss of a hole it is". Scott also describes the flight of a highlander fleeing the aftermath of the failure of the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took ...

; the soldier rolls down the hill amid a hail of enemy gunfire, and escapes. The Beef Tub is also known as ''MacCleran's Loup'' after the tumbling highlander.

References

Other sources

''Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland'' page on the Beef Tub

Devil's Beeftub surrounding roads and area
*

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

's e-text o
''Redgauntlet''

External links

Photograph of the Devil's Beef Tub, August 2009

Photograph of the Devil's Beef Tub, August 2007

Panorama of the Devil's Beef Tub, August 2009
{{coord, 55.40016, N, 3.48111, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NT063128), display=title Annandale and Eskdale