Many farms are intertwined with their local history and Auchentaggart, the hill farm that I used to rent in Upper Nithsdale, near Sanquhar, is no different.

Upper Nithsdale, with its wood-covered glens, moors and lonely hillsides was for years the retreats and hiding places of the persecuted Covenanters.

The martyr's graves, scattered here and there in the district, are silent but impressive witnesses of the part the district shared in what has been appropriately called "The Killing Times".

It all began when the Dean of St. Giles' Kirk in Edinburgh tried to introduce King Charles I's Book of Common Prayer on 23 July 1637. An old vegetable seller called Jenny Geddes showed her resentment by throwing her stool at the Dean's head, declaring that she wasn't going to participate in "Papery". Her public act of disgust was followed by the rest of the congregation and soon spread throughout Scotland.

The Sanquhar Declarations of 1680 and 1685 are generally considered to have sounded the death knell of the Stuart Dynasty.

Richard Cameron, known as "The Lion of the Covenant" and his brother Michael chose the Burgh of Sanquhar to publicly declare a momentous manifesto, the "Sanquhar Declaration". On 22 June 1680, the brothers, accompanied by twenty horsemen, rode down the High Street, and after praise and prayer, Michael read and afterwards affixed the Declaration to the Mercat Cross.

Although there were in fact six declarations, undoubtedly the most famous was the one by Cameron.

Cameron and his comrades then rode out of the Burgh and took to the hills and moors of Dumfriesshire and Ayrshire.

An immediate effect of the Sanquhar declaration was the extremely rigorous measures adopted by the authorities for the apprehension of the "Cameronians" and all known frequenters of conventicles (illegal gatherings in the open air for worship). A strong military force was sent into Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Nithsdale and Galloway, with strict orders to search for, arrest, and if need be, put to instant death all persons who, upon oath, refused to disown the Declaration.

No government could have tolerated the treasonable proceedings of the Cameronians - but the severities inflicted upon them and other Covenanters far exceeded the measure of their offence. From then onwards, for the next eight years, Upper Nithsdale was almost entirely dominated by the military.

The whole of Upper Nithsdale was traversed by Covenanters seeking concealment and rest in its wild and lonely places, and time and again the glens and moors re-echoed the trampling of the dragoons and the shots that sent many a hapless "rebel" to his grave.

About the commencement of the persecution in Scotland, nearly three-hundred-and-fifty ministers were ejected from their churches, in the severity of winter, and driven to seek shelter among the peasants. These ministers were forbidden to preach, even in the fields, or to approach within twenty miles of their former charges.

Often in the lonely moors, out of sight of the vigilant eyes of their persecutors, these outcasts continued to preach at illegal conventicles. One of the most renowned of these was the venerable Peden. He had no home, and so spent much of his time in the open, or hiding in caves, glens and woods.

Among the many hiding places to which this man occasionally retreated was the solitude of Glendyne, about 3 miles north-east of Sanquhar and adjacent to Auchentaggart Moor. On one occasion, he ventured forth from this lair to visit nearby Auchentaggart Farm, where a known sympathiser lived. While enjoying refreshments and the company of other wanderers in this house, a company of soldiers appeared at the door.

The poor men within saw there was little likelihood of escape, and together rushed out through the door, scared the horses, stupefied the troopers and fled in the direction of Glendyne, whose steep banks prevented a successful pursuit, and in this way escaped.

As Peden fled across the moor, and about to pass a burn, he spotted a cavity underneath its bank that had been scooped out by the running water. Into this he instinctively crept, and stretching himself at full length, lay hidden. In a short while, the dragoons came on, and having followed close in his track, reached the very spot where he was hiding.

As the heavy horses came thundering over the turf on the edge of the burn, the hoof of one of them sank through the sod, grazed his head and pressed his bonnet into the soft clay, while he escaped unhurt.