Balmaclellan (Gael. ` town of Maclellan '), a village and a parish of NE Kirkcudbrightshire. The village, 2 miles NE of its post-town New Galloway, has an inn, a post office, and the parish church (built 1722; enlarged 1833; 366 sittings). In the kirkyard are the grave of a martyred Covenanter, Robert Grierson (1683), a column to five natives who fell in the Crimean War, and a stone to the family of Robert Paterson (` Old Mortality '), whose wife kept a school here from 1765 to 1785.
The parish is bounded NW by Dalry, N by Dumfriesshire, E by Dumfriesshire and Kirkpatrick-Durham, S by Parton, and SW and W by Kells. From its north-eastern to its south-western angle it measures 10¼ miles; its breadth varies between 3½ and 6¼ miles; and its area is 23,346 acres, of which 327¼ are water. The Ken and Loch Ken mark all the western, Loch Urr and its outlet Urr Water great part of the western border, while along the north-western and northern flow Garpel Burn to the Ken, Blackmark Burn and Castlefern Water to the Cairn; along the southern, Dullar Burn to Loch Ken, and Crogo Burn to the Urr. In the interior are Shirmers and many smaller burns, as well as six lochs- Barscobe (2¼ x ¾ furl.), Brack (1¾ x ¾), Howie (6 x 1), Skae (2 x 1½), and the two Lowes lochs, each about 1¼ furlong in length. Most of these waters afford fairish trout fishing, Shirmers Burn being really a first-class stream. The surface has a general north-eastward rise, from Kenmure Bridge (155 feet above sea-level) to Barscobe Hill (825), Troquhain Hill (1139), Blackcraig Hill (1332), and Fell Hill (1775), 3 furlongs SE of Loch Skae. Thence it declines north-eastward to Craigmuie Moor (875 feet), south-eastward to Crerroch (671) and Crogo Mains (500). Belonging to the beautiful district of Glenkens, the western valley, about 2 miles wide, has a light, gravelly soil, and comprises most of the arable area (less than one-fifth of the entire parish), besides some 300 acres under wood. The rest is moorland; and the prevailing rocks are trap and slate, the latter quarried at two points. Mansions are Holm House, ¾ mile NW of the village, with a statue in its grounds of ` Old Mortality,' and Barlay, 2½ miles to the ESE; and 6 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 1 holds between £100 and £500, and 1 between £20 and £50. The antiquities include the supposed site of a Roman camp, at the NE angle of the parish; a mote-hill, close to the village; the habitable castle of Barscobe, 1¼ mile NNE, built (1684) by William Maclellan, a scion of the Kirkcudbright family; and the ivy-clad ruins of Shirmers tower, the reputed birthplace of Thomas Gordon (1690-1750), editor of the Inde pendent Whig- The Rev. Geo. Murray (1813-81), poet and antiquary, was minister of Balmaclellan for 43 years. Part of it is included for church, school, and registration purposes in the quoad sacra parish of Corsock; the remainder is a parish in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright and synod of Galloway, its minister's income amounting to £311. There are two schools, a free endowed one at the village, the other at Tronmaccannie, 2½ miles S by E; and the two, with respective accommodation for 145 and 56 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 123 and 27, and grants of £110,10s. 6d. and £36,1s. Valuation (1881) £11,564,18s. 11d. Pop. of quoad sacra parish (1881) 787; of civil parish (1811) 734, (1831) 1013, (1861) 1086, (1871) 1057, (l881) 937.—Ord. Sur., sh. 9,1863.
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