Longformacus () is a small village in

Berwickshire Berwickshire (; ) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. The county takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, its original county town, which was part of Scotland at the ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

area of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is around north-west of Duns, in the

Lammermuir Hills The Lammermuirs are a range of hills in southern Scotland, forming a natural boundary between East Lothian and the Borders. The name ''Lammermuir'' comes from the Old English , meaning "moorland of the lambs". Geology The Lammermuir Hills a ...

. The Dye Water runs through the village, flowing east towards its confluence with the

Whiteadder Water Whiteadder Water is a river in East Lothian and Berwickshire, Scotland. It also flows for a very short distance through Northumberland before joining the River Tweed. In common with the headwaters of the Biel Water it rises on the low hillside ...

nearby. In the vicinity are traces of an ancient fortification at Runklie or Wrinklaw and the Mutiny Stones cairn. The opera ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoor''. ...

'', written by

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''be ...

and based on

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

's ''

The Bride of Lammermoor ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, one of the Waverley novels. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, shortly before the Act of Union of 1707 (in the first editio ...

'', was set in the Lammermuirs and an old form of the village's name, Lockermachus, is mentioned in Scott's novel. The Southern Upland Way, a Long Distance Route which crosses southern Scotland, passes through the village, and the Sir Walter Scott Way from

Moffat 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 arou ...

Cockburnspath Cockburnspath ( ) is a village in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders. It lies near the North Sea coast between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Dunbar. Cockburnspath is the eastern terminus of the Southern Upland Way as well as the northern terminus of ...

passes through Longformacus.

Etymology

Longformacus derives its name from the Gaelic ''Longphort Mhacais'', meaning 'Macas's camp'. Derivation from ''Lann Fothir Maccus'', meaning 'church on the land of Maccus' has also been suggested.

History

The church of Longformacus was dedicated by Bishop David de Bernham, 11 March 1243. In 1667 the choir was in ruins, the church itself being "very ruinous." It was rebuilt on the old foundations in 1730, and a thorough renovation was made, in 1895. Our Lady's Well is on the Dye Water, about a quarter of a mile east of the village. The parish was long united to Mordington, but was disjoined in 1666. Longformacus and Ellem were united in 1712; and Ellem church was disused. There was some copper ore in the area which a former minister smelted but large scale production was not successful.

People from Longformacus

*Prof Alexander Christison

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

*Thomas Ord, circus horseman, son of the Longformacus minister.

References

External links

Gazetteer for Scotland: LongformacusBorders Family History Society: Longformacus
{{authority control Villages in the Scottish Borders Berwickshire Parishes in Berwickshire

Etymology

History

People from Longformacus

See also

References

External links