Timeline

Neolithic (about 4000-2000 BC: earthwork causeways (known as 'cursus' constructions) and at least one stone circle (later dubbed 'The Twelve Apostles') were in use. These features required considerable community effort, suggesting a religious, ceremonial and occupational centre of some significance. Some were first described in print by antiquarians in the 18th-early 20th centuries particularly when the Ordnance Survey (1850s) and building of the Cairn Valley Railway (early 1900s) recorded artefacts, cairns, earthworks and burials. Others were rediscovered in the late 20th century by aerial archaeology as parch-marks in fields during dry summers.

Bronze age (about 1800-800 BC) and Iron age (from about 800BC in Celtic Scotland) - scattered evidence of habitations and artefacts have been found over the past 200 years.

1st-4th century AD: Roman occupation of Britain, and repeated attempts to subdue the northern tribes. What is today Holywood lay between the two Roman walls built during the 2nd century AD: the villages lies 30 miles north-west of Hadrian's Wall and about 70 miles south of the Antonine Wall.

79-96 AD: The first Roman campaign to conquer the region began, with significant Roman marching camps built at what later became Bankfoot farm, Dalswinton (about 3 miles north of Holywood village, across the river Nith). By the end of the century, though, Roman forces had retreated to a line south of the Solway Firth.

122 AD: Under Emperor Hadrian, Roman forces consolidated their position by building and defending a border wall and line of forts between the Solway Firth and River Tyne.

142 AD: Under Emperor Antoninus, the Roman forces had again advanced northward through lowland Scotland and constructed a new wall between the River Clyde and Firth of Forth. The wall was overrun by 160 AD, though, as a result of growing guerrilla tactics from a confederation of lowland tribes.

169-173 AD: Local archaeological evidence of this period of military campaigning is the Roman fort at what became Carzield farm, Kirkton (about one mile north-east, across the River Nith from what later became Holywood village).

211 AD: Romans abandoned military aspirations in Scotland and again withdrew south to Hadrian's wall.

4th century AD: Roman administration of Britain ended and influence of Roman culture waned. Gaelic raiders colonised western Scotland. Over the next century, the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata grew to encompass the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern corner of Ireland.

6th century AD: Irish missionaries converted Gaels and Picts to Christianity, but local detail is fragmentary. Mediaeval religious traditions claimed, for example, that Irish preacher 'Congal' settled in an oaken wood reputed to cover the area (Dair Congal in Gaelic is 'the oak of Congal'). The Abbey at Holywood founded over five centuries later was referred to as Dercongal or similar names by some mediaeval writers following this tradition. More recent scholarship speculates that the name Conell, common in the region (e.g. Kirkconnel) may be associated with Convallus, a follower of St Kentigern who reputedly died in 612. Alternatively, Dalquongale, a site name associated with a 6th century saint, Drostan, may have seeded such traditions. There is only faint documentary evidence, though, for an early Irish or Scots hermit inhabiting the area, and no archaeological trace has been found.

'Reviresco', 'Holywood: A Forgotten Dumfriesshire Abbey', Gallavidian Annual (1922), pp. 4-40.

C. Crowe, 'Holywood: An early mediaeval monastery: Problems and possibilities', Transations of the Dumfries & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society LXXVI (2002), pp. 113-18.

8th century: Scandinavian invasions of Britain began by Norse, Danish or 'Gaills' [foreigners], and over the following six centuries their settlements, influence and integration grew. The 'Galloway Hoard', for instance, was a cache of Viking-age treasures deposited about 900 AD and rediscovered by a metal detectorist in 2014.

Mid 10th century: Galloway [from Gall-Gàedil  (Gaelic speaking foreigners)] and Dumfriesshire, in southwest Scotland, had mixed Gaelic, Norse and Danish populations, as suggested by surviving placenames.

12th century: 'Reviresco' suggests that John, Lord of Kirkconnell of the Maxwell family, was responsible for the establishment of Holywood Abbey c1121. Later historians put the foundation closer to 1180. The abbey was founded by the Premonstratensian order, which followed the rule of St. Augustine. Six other monasteries of this Order were founded in Scotland, including Saulseat, Whithorn and Tongland in Galloway.

The Abbey was recorded in mediaeval documents by the names Dercongal, Drumcongal, Dercongall (Celtic); Sacro Bosco, Sacri Nemoris, Sancti Nemoris (Latin); St.Bois, Saint Boyse, Seint Boyse, Le Wod (French); Haliwood, Halywood, Holtwood, Holywood and Holy Wood (Anglo-Saxon).

12th century: Lincluden Priory, a religious house for nuns, was founded at Lincluden, about 2 miles south of Holywood Abbey.

c1210: John of Holywood (1195-1256) or Johannes de Sacrobosco, mediaeval author of De Sphaera and other mathematical texts in use for four centuries, was said by near contemporaries to be 'English'. Nevertheless, the most likely site to be associated with him is the abbey of Holywood in Nithsdale, at which he may have become a Premonstratensian canon.

1372: A hospital was established in the region by Edward de Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce, and properly founded by Archibald de Douglas, lord of Galloway. Its location appears to have been about a mile from the priory at Lincluden, possibly on the the Abbey lands, which were extensive. "It was governed by a secular priest and housed 18 poor bedesmen".

D. E. Easson, 'A note on the Mediaeval Hospitals of Dumfriesshire and Galloway', Trans. D&G Nat. Hist. & Antiquarian Soc. (1955-6), pp. 209-210.

13th century: Franciscan friars ('grey friars') established a friary at the market town of Dumfries, some three miles south of Holywood Abbey. Unlike the monks at the Abbey, whose days were organised around rituals of prayer and work, the friars had a remit to preach to the surrounding population.

13th-15th century: southwest Scotland remained disputed territory between Scottish, Scandinavian and English control. In 1296 the English King Edward I invaded. Over the next thirty years, wars of independence reasserted Scottish claims, and a Parliament of Scotland was convened. The struggle for the Scottish throne, national identity and territory continued over the following century.

14th century: "regular carriers' wagons in use between the larger towns".

J. Robertson, The Public Roads and Bridges in Dumfriesshire 1650-1820 (Wigtown: G. C. Book Publishers, 1993), p. 14. Wagons, horses and foot traffic forded the rivers Nith and Cluden at several points and continued in use, floods permitting, through the nineteenth century.

1439: Plague was recorded in Dumfries: 'And that samen year, the pestilence came in Scotland, and began at Dumfries, and it was callit the Pestilence but Mercy, for there took it nane that ever recoverit, but they died within twenty-four hours'. Other waves of plague reached Scotland before and after, but no records remain of whether they affected this region.

'Ane Addicioun of scottis cronicklis and Deidis,' quoted in Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland I, 57.

1524: The last Abbot of Holywood, John Maxwell, was succeeded by the first 'Commendator' (lay administrator) of the Abbey, William Kennedy. The post of commendator was increasingly awarded to the monarch's favourites, giving them access to the income of their abbeys. This politically motivated dispersion of wealth to the King's appointees highlighted corruption and helped accelerate the Reformation.

1559: Supporters of the Scottish Reformation called for the dissolution of Scottish religious houses.

1560: The Scottish Parliament approved reformed religious practices and the installation of reformed ministers in over a thousand parishes.

1587: The General Annexation Act in Scotland granted monastic and cathedral properties to the Crown (King James VI).

1590: inscribed date on Fourmerkland Tower, about 4 miles east of Holywood Church.

1597: inscribed date on Cowhill Tower, some 2 miles north of Holywood Church. It was demolished in 1789 and a tower was rebuilt there in 1914.

1609: Holywood Abbey was secularised. Abbey operations were still managed by a commendator, John Johnston of Castlemilk, but during its final century of decline, members of the former religious community presumably had dispersed or adopted new social roles.

1617: Act of Parliament formed the Barony of Holywood, granted to John Murray of Lochmaben, a favourite of the King, for a nominal yearly rent of £20. The final commendator of Holywood Abbey (recorded as lasting less than a year) had been Thomas Forrester.

Watt, D.E.R. and N. E. Shead (eds.), 'The heads of religious houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th centuries', The Scottish Records Society, New Series 24 (Edinburgh 2001), pp. 97-9.

The buildings were gradually quarried for cut stone over the following 160 years, with part of the nave retained as a parish church.

1617: Scottish legislation for repair and upkeep of roads initiated the Statute Labour System and placed the care of the highways on the Justices of the Peace - roads to be made 20 feet in breadth for roads leading to Kirk or Market.

Robertson, op. cit., 15.

1621: Act prohibits wheeled wagons and limited loads to 1 ton to protect deteriorating road network.

1670: Cluden Bridge, a half-mile south of Holywood Abbey at the boundary of the parish, was to be repaired. At the time, almost all traffic across it and the road network was by foot and by horse; wheeled vehicles were uncommon because of the poor quality of the parish-maintained roads in the county.

Robertson, op. cit. pp. 137-8.

c1750: West Cluden mill in operation about 1 mile west of Holywood Church. Earlier mills had occupied the site and the opposite side of the river (at East Cluden).

1758: New bridge constructed over the Cluden at Newbridge.

1773: Manse (minister's house) constructed on Glebe land.

1778: The surviving portion of Holywood Abbey was dismantled. Its location was said to have been at the south-east corner of the churchyard, with underground passages described near the grave enclosure of Nelson of Portrack.

Robertson, op. cit., p. 94.

1779: Holywood Church was built, partly from stone from remaining portion of Abbey bought by builder for £50. Since the Reformation in the late 16th century, church services had been held in the surviving eastern part (choir) of the old abbey; the remainder of the stonework presumably had been robbed gradually over the previous two hundred years. The resolution to build a new church was made on 2nd February 1779, and the year is recorded on an inscription on the church tower's south face. Completed at a total cost of £378:18:10.

1782: Holywood schoolhouses were built, but location is uncertain (see 1823).

1782: A bridge over the Nith was constructed at Auldgirth (the first bridge there had been built 1773-80 but collapsed). Crossing the Nith had previously been by a ford between Lincluden and Dumfries and another at Killylung (near what became Holywood Station in the 1850s).

1788: The Commissioners of Supply for Dumfriesshire decided that, if a new bridge were constructed over the River Nith at Buccleuch Bridge in Dumfries, the route to Sanquhar via Cluden Bridge (and through Holywood Parish) could be made a toll road. Until that time, the main route from Dumfries to Glasgow was via the Edinburgh Road, Dumfries and Nunholm Road across the River Nith by Martintown Ford, then by Guilyhill, Hardlawbank and Portrack in Holywood Parish and by Merkland in Dunscore Parish to Auldgirth Ford and on to Thornhill. Martintown ford was over the Nith at the end of Nunholm Road immediately below the present bridge that carries the Dumfries to Glasgow railway. Until the Buccleuch bridge was proposed, it was intended that the Edinburgh Road should be made a toll road. Instead, a new line of road was constructed from the Buccleuch Bridge to Newbridge over the Cluden Bridge and a new line of road through Holywood Parish to the new bridge opened in 1782 at Auldgirth.

1788-1791: Poet Robert Burns moved from Ayrshire to Ellisland farm, about three miles north of Holywood church. He moved to Dumfries in 1791 and died there in 1796. He had frequently walked along the Rivers Nith and Cluden, and wrote the song 'The Minstrel of Lincluden' in 1794.

c1790: East Cluden mill in operation about 1 mile west of Holywood Church.

1791: Turnpike road being constructed (the origin of the present A76) as the new principal route to Glasgow (a distance of about 60 miles). 'Druidville' (the original Holywood village), at the edge of the new road, was constructed 1790-92 by minister, Rev Bryce Johnston. A turnpike was located near the location of the present village hall (built in 1910). Another tollhouse was in operation in Newbridge just north of the Cluden bridge, according to the first Ordnance Survey map.

c1800: Cluden Bank cottage erected, about 1 mile from Holywood Church.

1806-7: Several branch roads were constructed off the toll road (the present A76): 'to pass south of the old churchyard at Dunscore by the Glen of the Lagg' (now listed as 'Coldside Road' on maps); another 'near Auldgirth bridge by Throughgatefoot to the Water of Cairn and from thence thro' the farm of Speddoch to the confines of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright at Marglolly'.

c1815: Mansion and lodge erected, later to become the Embassy Hotel (later still Woodland House Hotel), about 1 mile south west of Holywood Church.

1816: Cowhill House stables erected, about 2 miles north of Holywood Church.

1823: The 1837 New Statistical Account mentions 3 parochial schools for the parish, noting that a schoolhouse 'situated near the church' had been built in 1823, but gives no location for the other two. On the other hand, the 1791 Statistical Account notes that two schoolhouses had already been built in 1782, one 'situated near the church, in the most populous part of the parish; and the other about four miles to the west of the church, for the accommodation of the distant parts of the parish', and that the schoolmaster near the church benefits from 'a free dwelling house adjoining the school-house'. For its part, the 1959 Third Statistical Account mentions Steilston (about 4 miles west of Holywood Church) and Speddoch (about 7 miles west of the church) as the other two schools then in operation, each teaching around 25 students compared to Holywood's 83. The terraced cottages known today as the Old School Cottages just north of Holywood village might have been the location of the original 1782 construction, but are recorded as the Grade C listed building dated 1823. On the other hand, those school houses are shown on the 1804 Crawford map. They were converted to private dwellings after the newest Holywood School opened during the 1960s. [1791, 1827 and 1959 Statistical Accounts of Scotland].

1831: Peak population reported for Holywood Parish: 1066. Number of families in the parish, 207; chiefly employed in agriculture, 85; in trade, manufactures, or handicraft, 43; males, 502; unmarried men, bachelors, and widowers upwards of 50 years of age, 16; women, including widows upwards of 45, 36; average number of births yearly for the last 7 years, 26-5/7; deaths, 15-2/7; marriages, 11-1/7. "The number of acres imperial measure in this parish may be stated at 8960, of which there are in wood, 540; meadow, 120; moss, ~60; roads, 120; hill, 300; the remainder is all arable".

R. Kirkwood, 'Parish of Holywood', New Statistical Account, (1837).

1832: Cholera epidemic in Dumfries town. It had appeared in other towns in England and Scotland and spread by polluted water supplies. Over two months, some 900 people were infected, and 420 victims were buried in a mass grave at St Michael's churchyard in Dumfries.

c1840: Dalawoodie Mansion, lodge and associated estate workers' cottages erected, about 1/4 mile from Holywood Church.

1848: Second cholera epidemic in Dumfries; no fatalities reported in Holywood parish.

1849: Holywood Station (initially called Killylung after the nearby estate), opened about 1-1/2 miles north of Holywood Church.

1861: First Ordnance Survey shows electric telegraph following the line of the Glasgow & South-West Railway Company Glasgow line. At least two 'steam engines' (steam driven agricultural machinery) are recorded near Newbridge.

1864-5: Holywood church was extended and repaired. It was reseated (wealthy members paying for their seats) and four memorial windows installed.

1873: Robert Louis Stevenson passed by, via Irongray: 'We then fetched a long compass round about through Holywood Kirk and Lincluden ruins to Dumfries'. Stevenson later wrote the novel The Black Arrow in which a 'Holywood Abbey' is a key location. The story, however, is set in medieval England, not southwest Scotland.

Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Letter: TO MRS. SITWELL; EDINBURGH, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1873.

1879: Portrack House built, about 3 miles north of Holywood Church.

1883: The previous Abbey farm buildings had been located in what later became the newer (south) portion of the Holywood graveyard. The new house and steading were built in their present location (1/4 mile north of the church) by John Carson, largely from old Abbey stone and dressed stone from Locharbriggs.

1890s: wooden fences and newly-commercialised barbed wire began to supplement or replace stone walls as field boundaries.

1905: Cairn Valley Light Railway Line of Glasgow & South-West Railway Company lay tracks east-west, south of the school houses and just north of the church grounds, to meet the Glasgow-Carlisle line to the east. It connected Dumfries with Moniave and had stations at Irongray, Newtonairds and Stepford. It had no station at Holywood itself, though.

1910: Village Hall built at junction of Glasgow Road and Manse Road, 1/4 mile west of Holywood Church.

1913: The Arrol-Johnston car factory, designed by an American architect recommended by the Ford Motor Company, was built at Heathhall, 3 miles east of Holywood Church on the other side of the River Nith. It initially assembled 'Detroit Electric' cars under license, then petrol-driven cars of its own designs until the late 1920s.

1920: First car owned in the area was said to be a model T owned by a resident of East Cluden village.

1922: Excavations of Holywood Abbey remains by Messrs Dick Peddie & Co, architects, of Edinburgh, at expense of Major Keswick of Cowhill, 'revealing minor (chapter house?) and possibly domestic buildings with later additions. The main portion of the Abbey lies within the present churchyard, and consequently cannot be touched'.

'7th September, 1922: Holywood, Cowhill Tower, The Isle, Blackwood, Dalswinton and Quarrelwood', Trans. D&G Nat. Hist. & Antiquarian Soc. (1923-24), pp. 207-213.

Excavation map collected by Dumfries Museum.

1922: The first radio station in the West of Scotland, 'Milligan's Wireless Station' 5MG operating out of Frank Milligan's radio shop in Bath St., Glasgow, could sometimes be received after dark as far south as Holywood. The station was bought by a group of London businessmen forming the British Broadcasting Company [sic] and relaunched as 5SC (SC for 'Scotland') in March 1923.

1935: Mains electricity supply arrives at East Cluden (and rest of parish?) just before Christmas. Before this, a few houses had had electricity operated from generators. Gas lamps and battery-operated radios remained common over the following decade or more.

1937: Mains water supply arrives at East Cluden (and rest of parish?) . Before this there were numerous wells to supply local water. These were indicated on the first Ordnance Survey maps.

1938: The Arrol-Johnston motor-car factory in Heathhall, three miles east of Holywood Church across the River Nith, was transferred to RAF Dumfries as a facility to prepare and store military aircraft. The site had included a grass runway used perhaps as early as 1914, and a major airfield and Bombing & Gunnery School operated there during the war.

1943: Cairn Valley Railway Line ceased passenger operations owing to declining uptake and competition from bus services.

1947-1957: RAF Dumfries at Heathhall served as a training station for Royal Air Force recruits. The site was sold to a private firm in 1960.

1948-60s: 'Glebe scheme' of postwar social housing constructed in stages, using Glebe land ceded by the Church of Scotland and forming the centre of what was to become Holywood village.

1949: Cairn Valley Railway Line - just north of the new Glebe scheme - closed to all rail traffic. Winter storms of 1950 damaged sections, and the line was dismantled by the mid 1950s. A deep cutting, prone to flooding, remains just north of Holywood church and what has been dubbed the 'Jubilee Woodland'.

1951: Population of Holywood parish down to 867 from its peak of over a thousand during 1830-1880, as farm machinery began to replace farm workers.

1952: Foot & Mouth disease in parish.

1956: The horse population in the parish has fallen from 217 in 1913 to 23, and there are now 64 tractors in use. [Third Statistical Account]

Aug 1958: The region's first television broadcasts, and improved Scottish Home Service radio broadcasts, from a new transmitter at Sandale Fell, Cumberland, about 40 miles southeast of Holywood across the Solway Firth.

1959: The Chapelcross nuclear power station opened some 20 miles east of Holywood. It generated plutonium and tritium for British nuclear weapons and up to 240 MW of electricity for the region until 2004. The decommissioning of the site is scheduled for completion in 2095.

1967: New primary school opened in the Glebe Scheme (new Holywood village).

1977: Cluden Bridge at Newbridge superseded as the principal route north by a road bypass just east of the hamlet, with a new highway bridge carrying the A76 trunk road. A new intersection was laid out at the junction of the A76, Manse Road and School Road.

1978: Prestel, a 'videotext' interactive television system, is available in Holywood to telephone subscribers. It ceased operation in 1994 as the internet expanded.

1988: Satellite TV available by subscription.

1999: Scottish parliament established; local campus of University of Glasgow founded in Dumfries, about 5 miles south of village.

2001: Foot & Mouth disease in region. Cattle and sheep in region slaughtered at Abbey Farm during April.

2004: broadband internet available in village.

2007: First wind turbines installed on hills above Dalswinton, about 5 miles north.

2010s: coal fires becoming uncommon in the village.

2010: Village post office closed.

2012: Holywood church building sold by Church of Scotland for conversion to domestic dwelling. The two late mediaeval church bells remain in situ.

2014: Village general shop closed.

2017: Public phone kiosk removed.

Mar 2020: Covid-19 pandemic leads to first lockdown of the region.

2020: Former village hall immediately west of churchyard dismantled to build two new houses.

2021: Village shop reopens and again closes. Rubbish recycling (paper, plastic, metal) begins, and bottle bank is located beside the village hall.

2022: New mixed woodland ('Jubilee Woodland') is planted by volunteers from local community in the field immediately east of the church. Wildflowers are allocated to the portion for which archaeological evidence has been found (excavated exactly a century earlier).

2023: Smaller woodlands and copses planted by landowners on nearby fields.

Source for East Cluden information: James H. Carson, transcribed East Cluden History, 6 March 1999.