Corehead is about four and a half miles north of Moffat town centre, at the ground level entrance to the Devil’s Beef Tub. Here lived William Wallace’s sister, who was married to Thom Halliday, the Laird of Corehead. And here, in 1297, The Wallace reputedly gathered men from the Ettrick Forest and the Border Families, and then led his first attack against the English, which is thought to have been on the slopes of Queensberry Hill. Throughout his armed struggle with England, Wallace used the Ettrick Forest as his base and in 1298 was made Guardian of Scotland at the Kirk of the Lowes, by St Mary’s Loch.
Yet, for some reason, Wallace is remembered as a Highland hero, and his roots in the south are nearly always overlooked; it is much the same for King Robert the Bruce, who was Lord of Annandale.
