Thornhill
Thornhill is an attractive and bustling village nestling in low hills some 14 miles north of Dumfries.
Although there had been a settlement on this site for centuries, the current village was created in 1714 as a planned village on the Queensbury estate, designed to be an important staging post on the recently developed road between Dumfries and Glasgow. A number of the village's 19th-century coaching inns are still doing business with locals and travellers on the A76, the main trunk road linking
Dumfries and Kilmarnock that runs through its centre.
The village's exceptionally wide, straight and leafy main street is lined with limes trees and handsome, prosperous Victorian villas, all built in the local red sandstone. The Mercat Cross is the focal point of the village, its octagonal base supporting a column topped with a winged horse, the emblem of the Dukes of Queensberry.
Thornhill is the perfect base for walking and also sits in close proximity to the amazing Drumlanrig Castle, the massive, many-turretted 17th-century mansion that is open to the public while remaining home to the current Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry.
