Dolphinton on the A702 is an alternative starting point for The Way and can be reached by bus.
The most convenient bus stop for the Houston Coaches 101 / 102 bus services (hourly service throughout the day) is by the road to Garvald / beneath Kippit Hill (see map) as the village of Dolphinton itself is about another 800m south.
Dolphinton lies partly in the Scottish Borders and partly in South Lanarkshire. The name is part Old Norse, personal name Dolgfinnr, plus Scots – toun, meaning farm. However, it is often claimed that it gets its name from Dolphine, elder brother of the first Earl of Dunbar, who was granted the land in the 12th C. The estate was owned by the Brown family from the 16th to the 19th centuries and, thereafter, it passed to the MacKenzie family by marriage.
The MacKenzies built a new manor in the early 1880s, now Dolphinton House (NT101467), purchased the lands of Kippit and made the property at Meadowhead (NT102461) into a summer house. The monument on Kippit Hill (NT111477) is dedicated to the memory of Kenneth MacKenzie of Dolphinton, who was killed near Arras in France on 27 August 1918.
Surprisingly, in view of its size, Dolphinton was served by two railways in the 19thcentury. The Leadburn, Linton and Dolphinton North British Railway reached the village in 1864 and in 1867 it was linked to Carstairs by the Caledonian line. Thereafter, Dolphinton had two stations but with the fierce independence and commercial rivalry of the two railway companies, attempts to merge or link them were thwarted. There are no signs remaining of the Dophinton (Caledonian) station and coal yard but the Dolphinton (North British) station site is still recognisable on a lane from the main road, being the old track bed, on the opposite side of the turn-off to Dunsyre.
Dolphinton >> Garvald