Friars Carse

Friars’ Carse stands two kilometres south-east of Auldgirth beside the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway. A baronial mansion of red sandstone was built in 1873 around an earlier house and enlarged again in the early 20th century. The estate covers eighteen hectares of parkland and mixed woodland, and the stables and hermitage are protected historic buildings. The house carries traces of Robert Burns’s friend Robert Riddell, who rebuilt the site in 1771, and later owners such as Dr James Crichton, who renamed it Friars’ Carse in 1812. The Crichton Royal Hospital in Dumfries was founded with money from his widow’s bequest. The Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance still owns the estate today. Visitors find panelled entrance halls, a snooker room and twenty-one en-suite bedrooms. The stable court and dovecot survive from the early 19th century, and the hermitage bears masonic symbols added by Thomas Nelson. Beyond the house lie the remains of the monks’ fish-pond and the crannog where valuables were hidden during raids.