One of the highest villages in Scotland, Leadhills grew up around the lead mines of the Lowther Hills. Its miners founded a subscription library here in 1741 — the Allan Ramsay Library, reckoned the oldest in the British Isles — and the narrow-gauge Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway still runs at weekends through the season. Bracing stuff, this high up. Sanquhar is the nearest mainline station, some 11km to the south-west.
