Balmaclellan (Scottish Gaelic: Baile Mac-a-ghille-dhiolan,[1] meaning town of the MacLellans) is a small hillside village of stone houses with slate roofs in a fold of the Galloway hills in south-west Scotland.

[3] In 1887, John Bartholomew's "Gazetteer of the British Isles" Described the inhabitants as "... of a mixed Gaelic and Germanic origin, and speak Braid Scots, a Northumbrian dialect of English.

The treu- part of this name is clearly the old northern British equivalent of modern Welsh tref, 'farmstead, dwelling', and car- is likely derived from caer meaning 'hill-fort', indicating an early settlement when this P-Celtic language was still spoken in the area.

[8] Possibly the grave is that of Elspeth McEwen from nearby Dalry, who was found guilty of being a witch on her own confession and on the evidence of witnesses, and burned to death at Kirkcudbright in 1698.

[9] To the south of the village, on the north bank of the Shimmers Burn, lies Ironmacannie Mill, a Category A listed watermill, which has been converted into a holiday cottage.

[10][11] The Scots comedy, Torwatletie (1940), by playwright Robert McLellan, set during the Jacobite rising of 1715, depicts the household of a nominally fictional Laird of the district.