Auchencloy Martyrs' Monument

Found via a Historic Environment Scotland full-text search for 'murdered' (listed as AUCHENCLOY MONUMENT, LB9864). Another entry in the same search - a separate listing for a 'FURGUSSON TOMBSTONE' - adds a preceding detail: that in 1684 one of the four men later killed here, James MacMichael, had himself murdered a curate of Carsphairn Church who was believed to be betraying the names of local Covenanters to Graham of Claverhouse's forces; not independently verified beyond that listing text. On 18 December 1684, during 'the Killing Time' - the government's violent suppression of militant Presbyterian Covenanters under Charles II - eight Covenanters hiding on the remote moor of Auchencloy were discovered by a party under John Graham of Claverhouse. Four - Robert Fergusson, John Grierson, James MacMichael and Robert Stewart - were shot on the spot without trial; two others escaped, and two were captured and taken to Kirkcudbright. As it wasn't known where Fergusson belonged, he was buried on site under a small headstone; Grierson and Stewart were buried at Dalry, where a separate stone commemorates them (not itself included here). This monument, erected by public subscription in 1834-35, stands at the spot where the four were killed.