Lochgoin Covenanters’ Museum

Preserving History for the Future

Linda Brown

On a dreich autumn morning, it is an atmospheric drive along the farm road cutting across the bleak terrain of Eaglesham Moor to the Lochgoin Coventanters’ Museum. Low cloud shrouds the landscape, and the giant wind turbines of Whitelees Windfarm stand sentinel across the moorland. The slow rhythmic sweep of their blades adds to the eerie mood and the sense of isolation. Yet civilisation is not far away; the village of Fenwick lies under seven miles from here and we remain – just – in East Ayrshire. Renfrewshire’s border is a stone’s throw away.

Lochgoin farmhouse, home to the Howie family for at least four centuries, and the adjoining museum, sit at the end of the road, just beyond the John Howie Monument. My friend pulls into the yard, then we step through the small museum’s door.

Admission to Lochgoin Covenanters’ Museum is free, though an honesty box invites donations to Lochgoin and Fenwick Covenanters’ Trust. Inside, storyboards relate the histories of the heroes and martyrs, and provide the background of the politics, the skirmishes and the battles of the turbulent Covenanting era. Glass cases hold original artefacts from the period, including manuscripts, swords, and the Fenwick drum with its worn drumsticks – used to rally the men during battles. It’s an interesting and informative place – keeping local, and sometimes sadly forgotten, history alive.

So, just who were the Covenanters? They were 17th century Scots Presbyterians – devout folk, including farmers, tradesmen, labourers, lairds – who risked everything to defend their faith and resist King Charles I’s interference in their church. In 1638, they signed a document known as ‘The National Covenant’ – a bold rejection of Charles’s ambition to impose Anglican practices on the Church of Scotland, including a new prayerbook based on the English Book of Common Prayer. This act of defiance ignited decades of religious and political persecution: imprisonments, executions and forced transportation to the American colonies or West Indies where many were sold into indentured servitude. During these years, Covenanters and their families worshipped in secret at illegal outdoor meetings called ‘conventicles’. Held in remote locations –glens, woodland, or moorland – these rebellious gatherings were always under threat of attack by government troops. Eaglesham Moor served as a site for conventicles, particularly during the brutal ‘Killing Times’ (1680–1688), when Lochgoin Farm became a sanctuary, a place to hide, for local Covenanters on the run.

Graeme Paton, Secretary/Treasurer of the Lochgoin and Fenwick Covenanters’ Trust, shares the origins of the museum with me.

“The Howie family of Lochgoin Farm held many relics of the Covenanting times; they had the drum used by the Covenanters when they went into battle. Since 1961, there was a museum room inside the farmhouse which displayed all the old artefacts.”

In 1967, Lord Rowallan bequeathed Lochgoin Farm and its land to the Trust, securing the future of this historic site. Graeme explains: “Income from land rental to Scottish Power Renewables has further enhanced the Trust’s ability to extend our museum and further educate and promote this important part of Ayrshire’s history.”

The Trust currently has seven Trustees, all of whom – remarkably – have family connections to the Covenanters. Graeme himself is a direct descendant of Captain John Paton of Fenwick, a soldier who was executed for his support of the cause in 1684.

“He had great faith and believed, as all the Covenanters did, that God was the head of the Bible and that no king should claim to be the Head of the Church. Captain John Paton was apprehended and eventually hanged at Edinburgh’s Grassmarket along with other Coventanters. He made a very long speech from the scaffold, forgave everyone, then handed down his Bible to his wife and children before he was hanged.”

That precious little Bible has been passed down the generations and is now exhibited at Lochgoin.
Graeme updates me on what’s ahead for the museum.

“We recently engaged an animation company to create a six-minute video about the Covenanting cause. With scenes in London, Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirk, and Fenwick, it tells the story of the ‘Killing Times’. It’s an excellent animation which will appeal to all ages.”

Visitors will be able to watch the video onsite. It will also be available to view online via YouTube.

The Trust has developed workbooks suitable for schoolchildren. Their aim is to encourage school visits to the museum with the Trust offering to assist with the financial costs of transport. A Promethean board, an electronic touchscreen, is being installed and will enable teachers and pupils to participate in interactive learning, essentially turning the museum into a classroom.

Lastly, plans are underway to create a tableau featuring a model of John Howie of Lochgoin at his writing desk. Howie, an 18th century writer, published The Scots Worthies, the definitive book of biographies commemorating Covenanting heroes and martyrs. The monument we passed earlier is dedicated to him and the Covenanters.

There’s much to see and do in the surrounding area. Walkers can follow the seven-mile Covenanters’ Trail between Lochgoin and Fenwick, opened in partnership with East Ayrshire Leisure. The more adventurous might explore the recently rediscovered Covenanters’ Cave – a former refuge from the government dragoons (access recommended only to the fit and able). Nearby, the martyrs graves in Fenwick Kirkyard, offer a poignant glimpse of the troubled past.

My friend and I end our visit at John Howie’s Monument. The low cloud has lifted. Standing beside the tall stone obelisk, Ayrshire opens up before us. Apart from the turbines, the boggy and unforgiving landscape has likely changed little in centuries. It is easy to imagine the Covenanters meeting here in secret, the wind carrying psalms across the heather.

Lochgoin reminds me that our history isn’t just found inside grand castles, stately homes and dusty archives – it’s also found in humble farm cottages and on windswept moors.
www.lochgoin.org