Polmady, Pulmaddy Polmaddie (Polmeadow ?probably from from Polmeadow Burn)

Just off the A713 between Dalry and Carsphairn is the remains of an old “ferm-toun”. It shows how a Galloway village was laid out before the enclosures and clearances of the middle of the 17^th to the beginning of the19^th century. It consisted of houses, byres (sometimes combines) an inn, a mill and corn drying kilns. The old pack road which ran from Kirkcudbright to Ayr passed close to the inn. This was also used as a pilgrimage route from Strathclyde to Whithorn. There were very few roads suitable for vehicles, even carts, so items had to be transported by pack horses and people walked, unless they could afford riding horses.

It is said that the miller gave shelter to Robert the Bruce during part of his sojourn in Galloway in the early 14^th century. The remnants of rig and furrow can just be seen in a field on the western side of the village. A small area was excavated in 1971 and it was hoped to reconstruct one of the houses and a kiln, but money ran out and no more has been done. The Forestry Commission now own the land and have put up interpretation boards and cut a path so that you can walk round what is left of the village.

The arable land in these types of settlement was generally divided into ‘infield’ and ‘outfield’ which described the different abilities of the ground to grow crops. Infield areas were considered fertile enough to grow cereal crops every year without a break, whereas outfield areas required several years fallow between a two or three years of crop. From medieval times bere or bear, a four-rowed barley, onions and kail were grown. Oats (probably ‘black oats’) in Galloway, was grown in the outfield area, and was the staple diet, bere being used to make ale, this meal only being eaten in emergencies. In other areas of Scotland, oats was grown in rotation with bere on infield areas. Animals were often killed before the winter as there was not enough feed to sustain them. Some were sent to market, leaving only a few to survive on the crop stubble and poor hay. Livestock grazed the arable fields after the crop had been harvested and on fallow parts of the outfield areas. Poor hay was cut for winter feed on the wetter ground which couldn’t be cultivated.

It was essential for the people of a ferm toun to co-operate; cattle and sheep had to be herded together on common unfenced ground, and families had to provide draught animals, oxen or horses, for ploughing. Old Scots ploughs were heavy wooden affairs that required large teams of oxen (usually) to pull them, and although metal ploughs were introduced around the mid 18^th century, the old ways continued in many areas. It was also necessary for the tenants to agree which areas were to be cultivated and what was to be grown on these areas. This could cause arguments so strict rules were in place to ensure the smooth running of the community. If problems could not be resolved or people didn’t stick to the rules they were taken before the Baron’s Court, before they were abolished in the 18^th century. People were ‘thirled’ (legally bound) to have their grain ground into meal at the local mill, for which they had to pay or give a portion of their meal; this was deeply resented and some people tried to evade it, keeping a small quern hidden in the house (another reason to be sent before the Court). Apart from the miller, a portion of the crop went as rent to the landlord, a portion had to be kept back for sewing the next year, and as yields were extremely low, it didn’t leave much for the people to survive on.

It is recorded the lands of Polmaddy were owned by the Hamilton and Dunbar families of Baldoon in Wigtownshire in 1705 from a ratification of Charter document in the records of the Parliaments of Scotland. The family owned lands all over Galloway, and were in the vanguard of the Enclosure movement.

The village was finally abandoned, it is thought following the building of the present road from Dalry to Carsphairn, but the it had been in decline for some time previously as farming methods were changing.