Tucked in woods behind Cally House (now the Cally Palace Hotel) is an absolutely enchanting little gothic tower, known as The Temple. It was built in the late 18th century as an eyecatcher from the house, but is now surrounded by trees in a sequestered spot.

Cally House was designed by Robert Mylne for James Murray and built in the 1760s. Accounts show that the Temple was constructed in the last years of the 1780s, as a feature in the landscape around the new mansion. During the recent restoration, evidence was found that the tower had probably been lime-washed, thus enhancing its visibility from the house and from the walks and rides in the ornamental demesne. It is hard to imagine now, with the folly surrounded by trees, but old photographs show the view from the tower as an open landscape with clumps, specimen trees and a view to distant hills.

The pleasure grounds at Cally House were laid out by the architect-turned-landscape designer James Ramsay (died 1820), and the folly is attributed to him, although there is little evidence.  A visitor in 1792 found the grounds ‘laid out and decorated with great taste’. His account shows that as well as ornamenting the park, the tower was earning its keep as a dwelling:

‘Within the extent of the pleasure-grounds is a house occupied by a farm-servant, which has been built in the fashion of a Gothic Temple, and to accidental observation has all the effect that might be produced by a genuine antique.’

That ‘farm- servant’ was William Todd, described by a descendant as the drover who looked after the estate’s black cattle. He lived in the tower from around 1782 to 1792, and brought up his family there in that period. Later the temple was said to have been home to ‘the person who had charge of the ornamental ground’.

In 1939 the Cally House estate was bought by the Forestry Commission, and in the 1930s the mansion (by now remodelled several times) opened as a hotel and was renamed the Cally Palace. The grounds became home to commercial plantations, and the southern third of the pleasure grounds was later cut off by the construction of the busy A75. The little temple slumbered on, dilapidated and roofless, but lost none of its charm, and in 2015 a restoration project was completed that saw it consolidated and secured for the future. The project was overseen by the Gatehouse Development Initiative, which worked with the Forestry Commission and a dedicated group of volunteers to secure funding. The architect for the project was Michael Leybourne, of Savills Dumfries office.

Few views of the Temple are known, so The Folly Flâneuse was delighted to find this illustration on the excellent Gatehouse Folk website (link below), especially as there is a seasonal connection. The folly featured on a Christmas card, sent in the middle of the last century by the then owner of the Cally Estate, Elizabeth Murray Usher (1903-1990), a descendant of James Murray.  The drawing is signed ‘Hookway Cowles’, not a name that was familar, so some research was needed… Hookway Cowles (1896-1987) was born in Yorkshire and had a peripatetic childhood as the son of a clergyman. He studied art and became an illustrator, working with a number of publishing houses to design dust-jackets, and produce cover images for fashionable magazines. Most famously, he worked on an illustrated edition of the novels of H. Rider Haggard for Macmillan Books. How he came to draw local scenes for Scottish Christmas cards is unknown, but the Folly Flâneuse fears she has digressed enough for now.

The restored temple is cherished by the local community, and has been the focus of projects and events, including inspiring a volume of poetry, which you can see here https://issuu.com/hatterick/docs/temple_poetry_booklet_issuu

Many thanks to Margaret Wright for help with this post. For more on the history of Gatehouse of Fleet see the excellent website http://www.gatehouse-folk.org.uk

Any thoughts or questions? Please scroll down to the comments box if you would like to get in touch. Thank you for reading.

High above the wonderfully scenic A712 from New Galloway to Newton Stewart, in the Scottish Lowlands, stands this granite monument. After a stiff climb up the hillside the views are breathtaking in both senses: the ascent will leave you short of breath, but you will gasp in awe at the views.

The monument commemorates Alexander Murray (1775-1813), the son of a local shepherd, who ‘by his genius and industry […] raised himself to unrivalled eminence’. From childhood he was fascinated by languages, and without teacher or tutor soon mastered the classics and modern European tongues. He was ordained a priest, but philology (the study of the history of language) remained his greatest love, and apparently following the advice of that darling of Dumfriesshire, Robert Burns, he won a scholarship to attend the University of Edinburgh. His ‘intimate knowledge of the Abyssinian language’ brought him to the attention of the king in 1811, when he translated a letter to the monarch from the prime minister of Ethiopia. He was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Edinburgh in 1812, but sadly his health failed, and he died the following year.

Looking along the valley towards the spot where Murray was born.
His first memorial was in verse, when the poet William Nicholson composed ‘On the death of the Rev. Dr Murray’, celebrating his achievements:

… Twas his the depths of language to unlock,
What every tongue in every clime hath spoke.

But curiously, for one who was so lauded, it took over 20 years for a more substantial monument to his memory to be erected. In 1833 a committee was formed in Edinburgh, and an appeal for subscribers to a monument was published in the papers. A prospectus was issued with an account of Murray’s life and a lithograph of the proposed design signed ‘J. Henderson, Archt’. This was probably John Henderson (1804-1862), a protege of Lord Panmure, then in the early stages of his career.

The prospectus made it clear that the design might be ‘modified or altered’ if the requisite funds were not found. The simplified design of the obelisk, as eventually constructed in 1835, suggests that there was indeed a shortfall. The monument was erected on land owned by the Stewarts of Cairnsmore, and the inscription records James Stewart’s ‘exertions and skill’ in getting the monument built. Presumably his exertions were not as strenuous as those of the builders who carted the materials up the steep hillside.

Murray had been buried in Greyfriars churchyard in Edinburgh, but the grave was not marked and an 1867 guide to the memorials in the graveyard noted that Murray had ‘no monument’.  In 1876 a ‘committee of gentlemen’ launched a second appeal to raise funds to erect a memorial over his burial place in Edinburgh. A smaller granite obelisk now commemorates the ‘Shepherd Boy who rose to be the most Eminent Linguist and Oriental Scholar of his day’.

The appeal also raised funds and to add an inscription to the earlier hilltop obelisk:

ALEXANDER MURRAY, D.D.
MINISTER OF URR 1806 TO 1813
PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 1812-1813
BORN AT DUNKITTERICK 22ND OCTOBER 1775
DIED AT EDINBURGH 15TH APRIL 1813
REARED A SHEPHERD BOY ON THESE HILLSIDES
ERECTED BY HIS COUNTRYMEN IN 1835
MAINLY THROUGH THE EXERTIONS AND SKILL OF
JAMES STEWART ESQ. OF CAIRNSMORE
ON WHOSE PROPERTY IT STANDS

The obelisk near Newton Stewart was damaged in a gale in November 1929, and once again a subscription was raised to enable its restoration. This was completed in 1931 when a crowd of 600-700 people gathered to mark the occasion. The obelisk is now owned by the Forestry Commission and there is a small car park at the foot of the hill. It’s well worth the climb.