Polharrow Burn

Polharrow Burn is a small watercourse in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It rises in Loch Harrow and flows towards St John’s Town of Dalry before joining the Water of Ken. The name comes from the Gaelic words for ‘stream’ and ‘wall’. Some have suggested it means ‘the bull’s burn’, but this is considered unlikely. The word ‘burn’ was added later when the original meaning of the first part became unclear. Loch Harrow may have given its name to the burn, or the other way around. The burn is linked to a Scottish country dance created by Hugh Foss. Foss was a cryptographer who also designed dances, publishing several collections from his own press. His Glendarroch Scottish Country Dance Collection appeared in 1966. He lived in retirement at Glendarroch in St John’s Town of Dalry and died in 1971. The dance named after the burn remains part of the tradition he helped preserve. Visitors can follow the burn’s gentle course from Loch Harrow down to the village. The landscape around is quiet and rural, typical of Galloway’s hills and moorland. St John’s Town of Dalry sits where the burn nears the Water of Ken. The area offers walking paths that let walkers trace the burn’s path. The dance’s name lives on in local events and collections of country dances.