Places to visit
Joe Graham’s Monument
A steep stone pyramid on the summit of Almagill Hill, raised in 1896 to a huntsman of the Dumfriesshire Foxhounds and visible for miles.
On the summit of Almagill Hill, 217 metres up on the ridge between Dalton and Hightae, a steep stone pyramid about six metres high stands beside the trig point. It is the most conspicuous thing anyone ever built in this parish and it can be seen for miles.
It was raised in 1896 to Joe Graham, for many years huntsman to the Dumfriesshire Foxhounds, who died in 1893 at the age of 80. A bronze panel on the south face, signed by J W Dods and dated 1896, shows a huntsman with his horn, his horse and his hounds. The inscription ends: “and now he has gone far far away we shall never hear his voice in the morning”.
The monument is Category B listed, and the Annandale Way crosses the summit, so there is a waymarked route up to it. What most people do not know is that the hill was a landmark long before 1896: there are prehistoric earthworks on the same summit, and the monument was effectively planted on top of an ancient defended site.
In July 2010 a mounted ride-out to the monument was revived for Lockerbie Gala’s centenary, with riders carrying the burgh standards of Lockerbie, Annan and Dumfries to the top. It ran to more than eighteen miles, by way of Little Dalton Kirk and Dalton village. The previous ride had been in 1961.