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Moffat is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire. Part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland, it lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town.
Moffat is around to the southeast of Glasgow, southwest of Edinburgh, northeast of Dumfries and northwest of Carlisle.
The Moffat House Hotel, located at the northern end of the High Street, was designed by John Adam. The nearby Star Hotel, a mere 20 ft (6 m) wide, was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the narrowest hotel in the world. Moffat won the Britain in Bloom contest in 1996.
Moffat is home to Moffat toffee.
The town is held to be the ancestral seat of Clan Moffat. The Devil's Beef Tub near Moffat was used by the members of Clan Moffat and later the members of Clan Johnstone to hoard cattle stolen in predatory raids.
Luxurious hotels sprang up to accommodate the increasing numbers of tourists. One such hotel opened during Moffat's heyday in 1878, Moffat's Hydropathic hotel was destroyed in a fire in 1921.
The old well was refurbished in the mid 1990s, and is still accessible by vehicle and foot. The water smells very strongly of sulphur, with deposits on the walls and well itself. At the grand reopening of the well, people visiting were encouraged to drink a glass full.
The well can be reached by following Haywood Road and climbing up Tank Wood (on the right at the top): the path at the end was the original route to the well. An alternative is to drive or walk up Well Road, and eventually, one reaches the Well Cottage and the car park for the well. As stated, when the water was first piped into town for the baths, it was pumped uphill to a tank in the appropriately named Tank Wood, before travelling back downhill to the bath house.
Larchhill Well was a chalybeate well located on Old Well Road near Wellwoodhead Cottage. The well is no longer visible.
It is part of the South Scotland region in the Scottish Parliament, being in the constituency of Dumfriesshire. Oliver Mundell of the Conservatives is the MSP.
Prior to Brexit, for the European Parliament its residents voted to elect MEPs for the Scotland constituency.
The infamous murderer William Hare may have stayed in the Black Bull Hotel during his escape to Ireland, after turning King's evidence against William Burke in the Burke and Hare murders.
John Loudon McAdam, Scottish engineer and road-builder, died in Moffat and is buried there.
In 1935, the remains of the victims of the Lancaster murderer, Dr Buck Ruxton, were found in a stream near The Devil's Beef Tub. A landmark case in legal history, it was the first in which the murderer was successfully convicted using the type of highly sophisticated forensic techniques which are taken for granted in the 21st century. The bridge at the top is still used to this day - near the very top it is a switchback that is not quite wide enough for two vehicles to pass on. The area is colloquially known as "Ruxton's Dump". The bridge from which Ruxton threw the parcelled remains has been straightened and widened; Gardenholme Linn, the deep wooded defile into which the packages were thrown is on the east side of the road (A701).
Samuel Wallace, a Victoria Cross recipient, died in the town.
Shops include the Moffat Toffee Shop and The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, while its restaurants and cafes include The Bombay Cuisine, Claudio's, Arietes, The Rumblin' Tum, The Balmoral and the Buccleuch Arms Hotel and Restaurant. The Buccleuch has also been awarded Gold in Visitscotland's Green Tourism Business Scheme.
Moffat also has a recreation park with a boating pond and a memorial to Hugh Dowding
There is an official Camping and Caravanning Club campsite (for tents, caravans and motorhomes) that is open all year as of 13 March 2008. This is situated next to the Hammerlands Centre - a combination garden centre, gift shop, restaurant, fish farm and children's play area with farmyard animals.
For walkers there is also the Gallow Hill. Moffat is also situated only a few miles from the Southern Upland Way where it passes through Beattock, and the Sir Walter Scott Way starts here.
Northeast of Moffat is the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall. This hanging-valley waterfall is 60m tall and lies within a nature reserve.
Moffat's main football club is Upper Annandale F.C., who represent the town in the South of Scotland Football League.
Moffat Golf Club was founded in 1884. In 1904, Ben Sayers of North Berwick was invited to design the present 18-hole course. Located high on Coats Hill overlooking the town, it is some 670 feet above sea level.
A long-distance walking route called Annandale Way running through Annandale (from the source of the River Annan to the sea) was opened in September 2009. The route passes very close to the town of Moffat, and a diversion from it into the town adds very little in distance.
The nearby Moffat Hills offer many walking routes, and the town itself is the closest base for access to these hills.
Between 1883 and 1964, Moffat had its own railway station at the end of a short branch line from Beattock railway station on the West Coast Main Line. The passenger service on the branch was withdrawn in 1954, and freight services in 1964. Nearby Beattock station lasted until 1972. The nearest railway station to Moffat today is at .
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