A village overlooking Nithsdale in Dumfries and Galloway, Tinwald lies 4 miles (6.5 km) northeast of Dumfries. Its parish church dates from 1765 and Tinwald House a mile (2 km) to the southeast was designed in 1740 by William Adam for Charles Erskine (1680 - 1763), a Lord Advocate of Scotland. The politician and merchant William Paterson was born in Tinwald in 1658. He founded the Bank of England and was responsible for The Darien Expedition to Panama in the 1690s.