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Location Off the main Moffat to Edinburgh road, the A701, five miles north of Moffat. |
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The Devil’s Beeftub is a huge hollow among the hills at the head of Annandale which was where many a Border reiver hid his stolen cattle after a raid. He was probably a Johnstone as this is Johnstone territory.
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The Devil's Beeftub where reivers hid their 'lifted' cattle until danger was past. |
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A Story.The Jacobite innkeeper of the nearby Crook Inn had been captured during the Battle of Culloden and was being taken to Carlisle for trial. He was well aware of what the end result would be and so, having nothing to lose except his life, he resolved to escape.It was a murky autumn day as the small party of guards and their prisoner trudged silently along the edge of the Beeftub on their long trek to Edinburgh, some forty miles away. To their right, just feet away, was the vast eerie hollow filled almost to its brim with a white swirling mist. Suddenly, taking his guards completely by surprise, he broke loose and plunged over the side of the abyss rolling himself up into a ball. Before his guards could react he was out of sight swallowed up in the hidden depth. He made good his escape and any visitor looking down into the depth of the Beeftub must agree that he deserved his freedom. |
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During the killing time of
Covananting days, the surrounding hills were alive with hunters and the
hunted, and many a shot rang out and a body lay still. Near the car park, on the edge of the Devil's Beeftub, a small monument bears this inscription: To
the memory of |
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Another Story. During a February day 1831, the mail coach going north from Moffat, encountered a most intense storm and the driver and the guard struggled on for some miles through the blizzard, but eventually had to abandon the coach which had become engulfed in deep snow. They released the horses, and, carrying the mail bags between them, the two men fought their way along the road through the deep drifting snow. Conditions were so bad that they were soon overcome by the cold and wet. Only the horses survived, making their way to a nearby farm where the alarm was raised. A search party was assembled but the conditions were so extreme, the storm continuing unabated for five days before they found the bodies of the two men on the roadside only half a mile from the Devil's Beeftub, still with their mail sacks. A monument was erected to commemorate the devotion to duty of the two mail-men. It is still there, by the roadside.
NEAR THE HEAD OF THIS BURN ERECTED 1931 |
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| There is a convenient lay-by in which to park. | ||
