Barr Village .co.uk
Barr Village Community
The Baur”, ‘a coy little place lying hidden in a great cup among the hills’, became a parish over 300 years ago in 1653, with documentation signed by Oliver Cromwell himself.
The road to Barr from Girvan passes Penquapple Glen, among scenery which delighted the Pre-Raphaelite Circle, also said to be the inspiration for “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti while visiting their Scottish hideaway at Penkill Castle.
Barr is also pin-pointed in the Art Map of Scotland, crediting George Henry’s painting “Landscape at Barr” (1891 ~ National Galleries of Scotland) as a milestone in Scottish Art.
Further on, Knockgerran House was once the site of an ancient chapel and at Lane Toll, a huge whinstone boulder marks the scene of one of the many conventicles, held in this district. The road is well described locally as ‘the screws’ winding in and out until finally rounding the last shoulder the village is seen, nestling cosily between the rivers Stinchar and Gregg.
Walter Scott drew inspiration for the “Bride of Lammermoor” from Janet Dalrymple, a 17th Century forbear of his friend, Lord Stair. The famous Sir James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair, later to settle much of Scots Law as it still stands, was ‘inadvertantly’ born in Barr at Dinmurchie farm when his mother was caught short!
Barr’s history, nurtured by it’s very remoteness and insularity from the Law, is wonderfully colourful from the celtic Damnonii tribes, the itinerant smugglers (richly described in S.R.Crocketts ‘The Raiders’), the persecuted covenanters,
(the Highland Host billeted in the Stinchar Valley found the native gaelic spoken more welcome than the politics of the time) to the notorious ancient “Kirkdandy Fair.” For centuries the fair attracted pedlars and hucksters, carrying their goods on horseback as the roads were often inaccessible. As many as fifty tents were erected selling whisky at one time and the ensuing revelries were said to have even shocked the youthful Burns!
Dates for your Diary
Tuesday 7th Feb 2012
Future of Barr stores meeting in the village hall at 7.pm.