The MacDiarmid Memorial

The MacDiarmid Memorial

To the east of Langholm a minor road climbs steeply out of the valley. As it crosses Whita Yett, a short path from a parking place leads to the striking memorial to the poet Hugh MacDiarmid. The memorial is the work of Jake Harvey and was unveiled on 11 August 1985. Made of steel and bronze, it is in the form of an open book, highly decorated with images from MacDairmid's poetry.

Nearby is a cairn carrying a verse by MacDairmid and noting that "Christopher Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) was a man of Langholm, a champion of Scotland, a fervent internationalist and one of the great poets of the world."

Hugh MacDiarmid was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve. He was born in Langholm on 11 August 1892, the son of a country postman. After schooling at Langholm Academy and in Edinburgh he embarked on a career in journalism in Forfar, then Montrose, interrupted by war service from 1915 to 1918.

Grieve became a member of the Independent Labour Party in 1908, and was a member of the Communist Party from 1934 to 1938 and again from 1956 until his death. In the 1930s he was a founder member of the National Party for Scotland. He died in Biggar on 9 September 1978.