Moffat

Moffat, a pleasant watering-place and burgh of barony (1635) in Upper Annandale, Dumfriesshire, 51 miles SSW. of Edinburgh by road, and 64 by a short branch (1883) of the Caledonian Railway. It lies 370 feet above sea-level, engirt by round grassy hills (the loftiest, Hartfell, 2651 feet), and in the midst of delightful scenery, chief features of which are 'dark Loch Skene,' the Grey Mare's Tail, and the Devil's Beef-tub. Its mineral springs, the principal of which, like that of Harrogate, is saline and sulphurous, have been celebrated since 1653; and its visitors have included Home, Hume, Carlyle, 'Ossian Macpherson,' Boswell, Blair, Burns, and William Black. Pop. (1841) 1413; (1891) 2291. See Turnbull's History of Moffat (1871).