Castle Douglas

CASTLE DOUGLAS (Burgh)

Incorporated into: 1975 Stewartry (1996 Dumfries and Galloway)

Official blazon

Barry of six Argent and Azure, a heart Gules ensigned with an imperial crown between two wings Or.

Above the Shield is placed a Burghal coronet and in an Escrol beneath the Shield this Motto "Forward".

Origin/meaning

The arms were officially granted on September 10, 1929.

Dumfries is a Royal Burgh of King William the Lion, dating from about 1186.

Castle Douglas was created a Burgh of Barony in 1791 in favour of Sir William Douglas, a local man who had prospered in the West Indies and had purchased the estate of Gelston in Kirkcudbrightshire and built a castle there.

Based on the device on the seal adopted by the Burgh in 1892, the arms have the silver and blue colours of Galloway for a field; the crowned and winged heart and the motto were the crest and motto of Douglas, Marquess of Queensberry, with whom Sir William Douglas claimed kinship