Moat Brae, Dumfries

[Jpaar]

For a few years now I have watched the sad decay of Barrie's childhood home in Dumfries, and was delighted to hear a year or so ago that the local housing association had bought it. I had heard that the intention was to convert the house into some form of community centre for young people - perfect I would have thought. However, I have just heard that the association now intend to demolish the house and no one in Dumfries is batting an eyelid. What an absolute tragedy! I know the house must be in an awful state as it has been left for so long, but surely it cannot be beyond hope? I don't live in Scotland anymore, but feel so upset that the house of such a person as Barrie is going to be ripped down.

[andrew]

Indeed very sad - I visited it in November 2001, 2 days before my son Anno was killed in Italy, so it rather haunts me in my memory. Perhaps the new developers could at least keep "that certain Dumfries garden, which is enchanted land to me", albeit not the house?? For those who don't know what on earth we're talking about, here's what Barrie had to say about Moat Brae while a student there in the 1870s:

"When the shades of night began to fall, certain young mathematicians shed their triangles, crept up walls and down trees, and became pirates in a sort of Odyssey that was long afterwards to become the play of 'Peter Pan'. For our escapades in a certain Dumfries garden, which is enchanted land to me, were certainly the genesis of that nefarious work. We lived in the tree-tops, on coconuts attached thereto, and that were in a bad condition; we were buccaneers and I kept the log-book of our depredations, an eerie journal, without a triangle in it to mar the beauty of its page. That log-book I trust is no longer extant, though I should like one last look at it, to see if Captain Hook is in it."

[Jpaar]

Thanks Andrew - there is an old article about the house and an image from last year here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7334075.stm