A little outside Newton Stewart in Galloway there is a pleasant spot which marked on the map with the name Foul Hole.
Quite what the undistinguished triangle of land at a road junction has done to deserve this name is not known but fans of great addresses will want to add it to their collection.
Inspection of the site reveals piles of stones and bits and pieces that show that a building once stood there but with no clues as to whether it was a house or some other structure.
In Russia of old aristocrats enjoyed giving villages on their great estates insulting names to reflect their disdain for the peasantry. However, this was not a popular practice in Britain where the peasants could be an unruly mob. Perhaps the Foul Hole name commemorates a swamp or a bog that once existed at the road junction?
Foul Hole is a little to the north of the site of the ancient church, now vanished, of Penninghame Parish which was the centre of the local community before Newton Stewart was built. Today it is a lonely spot. The graveyard contains many interesting memorials, particularly the 18th century stones with their skulls, bones, angels and hourglasses representing fleeting time.
See the Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 311, grid ref 413 618.
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