The Gatehouse Coat of Arms
On December 17th 1949 the Galloway News reported that Gatehouse Town Council was seeking to acquire a chain of office for the Provost, and associated with this was the need for a coat of arms for the town. At that time “a non-heraldic representation of the clock tower in the centre of the burgh” was used to identify the town in written documents, but the Lord Lyon (the official heraldic authority for Scotland) had suggested the more “conventionalised” version of the tower. The newspaper article continues :-
“On looking into the earlier and indeed very ancient history of Gatehouse ........... he [the Lord Lyon] found its history was associated with the Stewarts of Dalswinton, a connection with the Earls of Lennox” and “the borough owed the greater element of its foundation to James Murray of Broughton.”
It then continues :- “.....he had designed a coat of arms showing the stars of Murray, the chequered fess of the Stewarts, and the roses of Lennox” and “a standard type of tower” on a “mount in base Vert”.
“He had made the tower red” because “red was one of the livery colours of the Stewarts of Garlies”.
“The fees payable to the Lyon Clerk on behalf of the Exchequer would be £48 8/6”.
The decision to go ahead with the chain and coat of arms was finally taken in mid 1951 and we still use them both today.