Gravestone

Today's the day ........................ for a monument

A walk today to the Martyr's Monument (see extra) on Kirkconnel Moor which marks the site where five Covenanters were murdered on 21st February 1685 at the command of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag.

The period from 1660 - 1688 was a time of religious turmoil for Scotland and Galloway in particular.  Charles II had gone back on his word to uphold the Presbyterian Church and was trying wholeheartedly to impose the Episcopalian form of worship on to the Scots - opposition of any kind was declared unlawful and seditious.  However, the majority of Scots remained faithful to their own religious practices, so fines, imprisonment and even death was employed in an attempt to bully the people into acceptance.

Five such Covenanters - David Halliday, John Bell, Robert Lennox, Andrew McRobert and James Clement - were on the run from Lag and his troops when they were found attempting to hide in a rocky outcrop over the hill from Lairdmannoch Loch.  No mercy was shown and the five were all brutally killed even while in the act of prayer.

Lag forbid their burial - they were to be left on the open moorland as a warning to other dissenters.  Eventually, friends were allowed to take their bodies for burial, except of James Clement who was buried where he had fallen (see above) as he was a stranger to the area.

The granite monument, erected in June 1831 now marks the spot where they were killed .........................