The village is near Drumlanrig Castle, a 17th-century turreted mansion once the ancient Douglas stronghold, now home to the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry.

Wallace Hall Primary School and its Nursery moved into a new building in January 2010, as part of a shared campus with Academy.

Swimmer Moira Brown represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Games and Great Britain in the 1972 Munich Olympics as well as several other internationals.

The Very Reverend Dr James Harkness, first non-Anglican Chaplain-General of the UK Armed Forces and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1995, is from Thornhill.

Thornhill has a bowling green, a squash court, a football field, and a golf course,[11] and is known for fishing in the nearby River Nith and tributaries.

[13] Beginning in 2012, Thornhill Music Festival has grown into an annual community event, with regular attendees from all over the UK coming each year.

This Festival was started by The Lewis Hamilton Band who noticed a steady decline in available live music, and so in 2012 they decided to put on something similar to the established and successful Blues Festivals such as Shetland, Arbroath, Callander and in particular Montrose (they played at all of them several times), where all the bands are paid directly by the venues, but differing in that they wanted to broaden the musical scope.

With the agreement of the local school, Wallace Hall, they plan to provide the music to both the Dementia Group at the Friendship Club and also to Briary Park Old People's home.