Linn's Grave

Craigmoddie Fell, Derry,

Wigtownshire

NGR - NX 244726

 

Linn's Grave is located on the northern slopes of Craigmoddie Fell and requires a walk over rough countryside to reach. On older Ordnance Survey maps it is referred to as 'Linn's Tomb'.

One hundred forty-two years after Linn was martyred, Rev William Symington of Stranraer conducted a memorial service at the graveside.  A stone wall was built around the grave, its stone placed in the wall, and a new stone added.  The new stone repeated the inscription from the old (correcting the spelling of the name Drummond) and included a post script:

 

Memento Mori

Here lies the Body of Alexr. Linn,
who was surprised and instantly shot to death
on this place, by Lieut. General Drummond for his
adherence to Scotland's Reformation, Covenants national solemn league. 1685.       
Renewed
in 1827 in consequence of a sermon preached on this spot by the Revd. W. Symington of

                                Stranraer.

Contend for the faith & c.

The grave is in so remote and wild a place that Mackenzie wrote ... It was [a] matter of surprise, that a congregation could be collected there to hear [a] sermon. ... "Yet," says an eye witness, "we had a large and most attentive audience, people having gathered from a wide circle of the surrounding country.  It was with great difficulty that Dr. Symington could find his way to the spot on the Sabbath morn; but as he approached it, he perceived people streaming towards it from all quarters.  A temporary pulpit was erected near the martyr's grave.  The audience listened with much pleasure, to a long and moving discourse, from Jude 3.  An Old elder from Ayrshire, officiated as precentor, and gave plaintive martyrs worthy of the name ...''
Sixty years after Symington's sermon, another memorial service was conducted at Linn's tomb; in twenty-four and twenty-five years more, yet another and another.  Eventually, a second new stone was added to the stone wall, commemorating the 1887, 1911, and 1912 services.

RENEWED
IN CONSEQUENCE OF
A SERMON PREACHED HERE
BY
THE REVD. A. F. MITCHELL,
MINISTER  OF  KIRKCOWAN,
ON  THE  14TH  AUGUST 1887.
Text 144TH Psalm, 15th Verse.
"Happy is that people whose  
GOD is the LORD."
This Tomb was Rebuilt after a Service
Here in 1911
Was Rededicated on the 28th May 1912
By The Revd. R.L. Johnstone Kirkcowan.

 


In another fifteen years, then, there was yet one more commemoration at the tomb.  A 1927 service was noted by an addendum to Alexander Linn's original 1685 stone, on which Drummond's name had been written Drumand.

A COMMEMORATION SERVICE
WAS HELD HERE ON THE 31ST JULY
1927 AND THEREAFTER THIS
MEMORIAL WAS RESTORED.

Alexander Linn's Grave

 

Lieutenant-General William Drummond, whose brutal, relentless pursuit of Covenanters had earned him the nickname "Herod" Drummond, was leading his men across southern Ayrshire.  As they advanced toward Wigtownshire, a number of lapwings flying in the distance suggested that some danger threatened their nests.  Suspecting the cause of their distress might be human, Drummond led his men across the border.  Approaching Craigmoddie Fell, they saw someone near the top of the hill and circled around to take him by surprise.  When they found him in possession of a pocket Bible, Drummond decided that was cause enough to condemn the man.  And so, Alexander Linn, a simple shepherd, was ambushed, shot, and killed for his faith.