The small town of Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland was once classed as a small burgh in the Scottish system of classification of towns and cities. It was also once a 17th century tourist spot, when it was a spa town, having waters nearby which were thought to be healthful. Sitting on the banks of the River Annan, it has a population of around 2,500 people currently.
A quirky fact about the town is that it has a hotel, the Star, which is only 20 feet wide. This at one time landed it in the Guinness Book of World Records. There is a hollow near the town of at least 500 feet in depth where at one time cattle stolen in raids was hidden, first by members of the clan that gave the town its name and then, later, a different clan, Johnstone. Called the Devil’s Beef Tub, it is formed from four tall hills.
During the 17th century, Moffat grew from its very small town roots into something of a hot tourist and vacationing spot due to the presence of Moffat Spa, a sulfur spring near the town. During the Victorian era, the high demand for these thought-to-be-healthful waters led to the creation of a bath house in the center of the town, which held the water that had been piped down from the spa itself.
Over the years, the spa trade gradually diminished, though the original spa well was renovated in the mid-1990s to serve as a curiosity for tourists and sightseers. The last of the luxurious hotels that had sprung up around the bath house caught fire back in 1921.
The council area of Dumfries and Galloway, in which Moffat resides, is one of 32 such entities in Scotland. It boasts a current population of about 149,000 people and lies on the extreme southern border of the country, acting somewhat as a belt that spans from west to east, where it abuts the Borders (another council area). Both Moffat and Dumfries are fine examples of Scotland.
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