Sanquhar

Sanquhar /ˈsæŋkər/ (Scots: Sanchar, Scottish Gaelic: Seanchair) is a town on the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, north of Thornhill and west of Moffat. It is a former Royal Burgh.

It is notable for its tiny post office, established in 1712 and considered the oldest working post office in the world. It was also where the Covenanters, who opposed episcopalisation of the church, signed the Sanquhar Declaration renouncing their allegiance to the King, an event commemorated by a monument in the main street.

The church of St Bride's contains a memorial to James Crichton, a 16th-century polymath. The ruins of Sanquhar Castle stand nearby. Nithsdale Wanderers, the local football team, were formed in 1897. In 1924–25, they won the Scottish Division Three.

The town celebrates the granting of its Royal Charter on the 3rd Saturday in August each year. The day consists of a procession of horses, decorated floats and massed pipes and drums around the town.

The name "Sanquhar" comes from the Scottish Gaelic language An t-Seanchair, meaning "old fort". A 15th-century castle ruin overlooks the town, but the name predates even this ancient fort. The antiquary, William Forbes Skene even considered it the probable location of the settlement named Corda in Ptolemy's Geographia.

The ancient hill fort at Tynron Doon is located about 28 kilometres away from the town. This fort is described in Archaeology of late Celtic Britain and Ireland by L R Laing (1975) as "a well-preserved multivallate hillfort" which probably began its existence in the Iron Age and continued to be used throughout the Dark Ages and into the early Medieval period. During Roman times the fort would have been in Selgovae territory; after the Romans departed it lay on the borders of the Strathclyde Britons and the Galwyddel. This place is associated with a local legend of a "heidless horseman" who is supposed to have ridden down from it as an omen of death, a story which possibly has some origin in a Celtic head cult. The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott (1822) attest that Robert the Bruce hid in the forests about this hill after he had killed one of his rivals, John "the Red" Comyn.

In the 9th and 10th centuries, waves of Gaelic settlers came to the area from Ireland. These Scoto-Irish people replaced the native Britons and became the dominant inhabitants for hundreds of years. In the 12th century, Norman colonization of the British Islands brought a feudal system of government and squabbling barons and sheriffs ruled the land for several centuries. These border counties were constantly in a state of turmoil as groups raided each other across the dividing lines.

During the war of Scottish Independence the English army took over the old castle at Sanquhar. The Lord of the Castle, Sir William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, learned of this and came up with a clever plot where one man sneaked into the castle and threw open the gates, allowing Lord Douglas to seize it. The English began a counter-attack, but William Wallace learned of the battle and came to the rescue. As the English army retreated, Wallace chased them down and killed 500 of them. Wallace visited the castle on several occasions.