Kirroughtree House

It occupies a prominent position 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of the town of Newton Stewart in the Galloway region of southwest Scotland.

To the east, where the Forestry Commission's Kirroughtree Visitor Centre now stands, it included the lead mines of Blackcraig, which contributed to the estate's prosperity after their chance discovery during the construction of a military road in 1763.

[3] Kirroughtree House has retained 8 acres (3.2ha) of gardens incorporating a variety of well-grown trees that include North American species imported in the 18th century.

[6] A Battle of Kirroughtree took place in 1308 during the First War of Scottish Independence in which Edward Bruce put to flight a significantly larger English-led army.

The former fugitive and Bothwell "ring leader" Patrick Heron (1642–1721), accrued considerable wealth through raising cattle and exporting them to England.

Each year from 1689 to 1691 it is recorded that he raised 1000 cattle in a park at Baldoon, south of Wigtown, and drove them to England via Dumfries for a handsome profit.

[12] After his father's 1695 death, Patrick Heron succeeded to Kirroughtree Estate and began to acquire additional land and enclose more parks for livestock, building dykes (dry stone walls) and planting trees around the landholdings.

His prosperity enabled the building of the current Kirroughtree House and its dovecote,[13] but his enclosures also contributed to the villagers of Minnigaff losing their access to fertile agricultural land and thus, after his death, to the Galloway Levellers uprising of 1724.

Boswell described his host, young Patrick Heron, as "sensible, genteel, well-bred, has an uncommon good temper, and, at the same time, has all the spirit that becomes a man".

[17] Poet Robert Burns visited Kirroughtree House in the 1790s and is reputed to have recited his poetry sitting at the foot of the main staircase.

[18] Patrick did “bear the gree” to become the local Member, but after being elected for a second term in 1803, Heron was unseated by the decision of a parliamentary committee and died in Grantham whilst on his return journey to Scotland.

She therefore inherited Kirroughtree along with her husband Sir John Shaw Maxwell, a British Army officer who then adopted the surname Heron-Maxwell.