Glenlochar_barrage_at_end_of_Loch_Ken_-_geograph

Glenlochar ( Gd: ''Gleann Lochair'') is a hamlet on the western bank of the River Dee in the parish of Balmaghie in the historical county of

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative count ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...

. Glenlochar is located one and a half miles south of

Balmaghie Kirk Balmaghie ( ), from the Scottish Gaelic ''Baile Mhic Aoidh'', is an ecclesiastical and civil parish in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland and was the seat of the McGhee family. It is bordered by the R ...

and north of

Castle Douglas Castle Douglas ( gd, Caisteal Dhùghlais) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the lieutenancy area of Kirkcudbrightshire, in the eastern part of Galloway, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet. It is in th ...

Etymology

Etymologically speaking, Glenlochar may be connected to the ancient name ''Loukopibía'', and derived from the

Brittonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

''-luch-'', "marshy/brackish water" (

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

''llwch'',

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, an ...

loch ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spell ...

''), or ''lǖch'', "bright, shining", with the adjectival suffix ''-ar''. The first part of the name is either Brittonic ''glïnn-'' (Welsh ''glyn'') or

''gleann'', both meaning "a valley", anglicised as Scots ''

glen A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower ...

''.

History

The buried remains of a large

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

fort exist on the eastern bank of the River Dee, opposite Glenlochar. The fort was built in 81 AD by the Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola and enclosed an area roughly .

Abbey Yard Abbey Yard is a location in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Abbey Yard is near Glenlochar in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in the Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is G ...

is the local name for the area containing the fort remains; this reflects the incorrect identification on Ordnance Survey maps prior to the 1940s as the site of an abbey. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Glenlochar was the site of a training camp for the construction of

Bailey bridge A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian and American military engineering units ...

s. The concrete slab foundations of the camp are still visible. An unexploded bomb shell was found at the site and a controlled explosion was conducted in 2002.

Amenities

Glenlochar has a small community hall which used to be the local school. The Glenlochar Barrage on the River Dee is part of the

Galloway Hydro Electric Scheme The Galloway hydro-electric power scheme is a network of dams and hydro-electric power stations in Galloway, south west Scotland. It was built between 1930 and 1936. The generating stations draw water from the River Ken, River Dee and River ...

. Glenlochar House is a late 18th/19th century Georgian house with its principal facade overlooking the River Dee.

References

Villages in Dumfries and Galloway Roman legionary fortresses in Scotland {{AncientRome-stub