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The Mid Steeple has been a landmark of the town centre since the eighteenth century. In the first chapter of Solway Sleuth-Hounds Gretna is imprisoned in it. In the photograph you can see the door at the first floor level and the outside staircase down which Gretna made her way to freedom.
At the time of writing the Mid Steeple has lost its steeple. It was removed for safety reasons and, for the meantime, there is just the tower but no steeple.
This was the house in which Robert Burns, exciseman and poet, spent the last five years of his life.
The house is now a museum.
Devorgilla Bridge, with its stone arches, is one of the oldest bridges in Scotland. It dates from the Middle Ages. At the end of the eighteenth century it was proving rather narrow and so a new bridge was built just up river. But at the time of Sleuth-Hounds the new bridge was only half built and so Gretna had to drive her wagon over the Devorgilla Bridge.
I was lucky in being able to photograph the two canoists.
This is the oldest house in Dumfries. It dates from the seventeenth century. It stands at the very end of Devorgilla Bridge and is partly built into the bridge itself.
It has had various uses but the time of Sleuth-Hounds it was an inn -- and in the story it was where Gilla and Alaister had their wedding reception.
It is now a museum.
This is a feature of the River Nith. It is a kind of artificial waterfall just down from Devorgilla Bridge. It was used to power the grain mill which is now the Robert Burns Centre. But actually the caul was originally made as a kind of early flood control.
All these photographs were taken by Mary S Moffat
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