| Country: | Scotland |
| Official Name: | Old Luce |
| Map Type: | Scotland |
| Coordinates: | 54.878°N -4.811°W |
| Unitary Scotland: | Dumfries and Galloway |
| Lieutenancy Scotland: | Wigtown |
| Constituency Westminster: | Dumfries and Galloway |
| Constituency Scottish Parliament: | Galloway and Upper Nithsdale |
Old Luce is a civil parish in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the Machars peninsula, in the traditional county of Wigtownshire. The parish is around long and broad, and contains .[1]
It was anciently named Glenluce which was divided in 1646 into two parts, the northern one named New Luce, and the southern one named Old Luce.[2] [3] In 1661 the two parishes of Old and New Luce were reunited for a time, and when the 1684 Wigtownshire Parish List was recorded, it listed both Old Luce and New Luce under “Glenluce Parish”.[4] In 1688, after the Glorious Revolution, the separation of Old Luce and New Luce became permanent. Old Luce has a Community Council.[5]
The town of Glenluce and Glenluce Church are in Old Luce Parish, as is Glenluce Abbey. In 1846 in the Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, Samuel Lewis wrote that the village of Glenluce was situated upon the road leading from Newton Stewart to Stranraer. "The church, erected in 1814, is a commodious edifice, and situated close to the village. The members of the United Secession have a place of worship. There are several other schools, of which two are connected with dissenters, and one is supported by the Hay family."[6]
Dunragit (Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Reicheit) is a village on the A75, between Stranraer and Glenluce in Old Luce. The place-name has been said to derive from Din Rheged meaning Fort of Rheged. This would refer to the Brythonic Dark Age kingdom of Rheged that seems to have existed somewhere in this area of the English/Scottish border between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is possible that this was one of the royal sites used by the kings of Rheged and it has been suggested as the site of the unidentified Northern Royal court Penrhyn Rhionedd, recorded in the Welsh Triads. There is a possible Roman cremation cemetery and two castle mottes in the village. The ex-King of Dublin and Man or Mann, Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, had the title Rex Innarenn ("King of the Rhinns") attributed to him on his death in 1065. The western sections of Galloway had been firmly aligned with the Isle of Man, and Norse and Gaelic-Norse settlement names from the 10th and 11th centuries are spread all along the coastal lands of south-western Scotland. Glenwhan Garden, has been created in Dunragit since 1979, and today is open to the public.
Carscreugh Castle (of Earl of Stair in 1782) was the home of Janet Dalrymple, on whom Sir Walter Scott based his heroine Lucy, the Bride of Lammermoor, (who became Lucia di Lammermoor in Donizetti's opera of the same name.) Janet fell in love with and secretly betrothed to a penniless local man, Archibald Rutherford. Her parents bitterly opposed this liaison and forced her to renounce her vow and marry another man from a wealthy local family, Sir David Dunbar of Baldoon Castle near Wigtown. However something dreadful happened on her wedding night which ended in her death and the wounding of her husband, who ever afterwards refused to divulge to anyone what had occurred that night.
From Glenluce Sands there have been recovered "more objects of antiquity than from any area of similar extent in Scotland". The relics range from neolithic to mediaeval times.[7]
St. John's Chapel at The Knock of Luce was at one time a chapel of St. John. The tenant, Mr. Wilson, told Rev. George Wilson of Glenluce that he removed three distinct paved floors, one above the other. This indicated a long occupation.[8]
Rev. George Wilson of Glenluce, in his Archaeological and Historical Collections relating to Ayrshire and Galloway, relates that Wigtownshire contains about sixty forts; 15 in Mochrum, 4 in Glasserton, 10 in Whithorn, and several more in the other parishes not named in his list. He lists the following forts in Old Luce:[9] [10]
Droughdool Mote or Mound, south Dunragit Village, has a base of 156 ft diameter, is 30 ft high with a level top of 40 ft diameter.[21]
Dunragit henge between the Mound and Dunragit village is one of the most important Stone Age sites in Scotland. It is a pit defined cursus monument, dating from Neolithic and Bronze Age times. It was first discovered by aerial photography in 1992. Dunragit Excavations Project Archaeological excavation has revealed the remains of three massive concentric timber circles; the outer circle was 300m in diameter, almost six times the size of Stonehenge. Built around 2500 BC, this huge monument was a ceremonial centre and a meeting place for south-west Scotland's early farming communities.[22] [23]
Whitefield Loch has two crannogs: Dormans Island crannog of 250BC; and Tree Island crannog. The latter is now on dry land due to the fallen water level in the Loch.[24] Whitefield is near Machermore, ancient castle of the MacDowall Clan.