Welcome to the website for New Galloway Town Hall and Local Initiatives in New Galloway (LING).

New Galloway Town Hall is situated in the heart of New Galloway in the beautiful Glenkens area of Dumfries and Galloway. LING (Local Initiatives in New Galloway) have managed the hall since 2012, and took full ownership from Dumfries and Galloway Council on behalf of the community in 2022.

Having secured funding, LING undertook extensive renovation of the Town Hall inside and out to preserve this historic building while making it a fully accessible, efficient and functional community space.

With this work complete, the Town Hall provides a versatile modern venue for a range of activities, from lunches to sports evenings, pot luck suppers, family bingo and concerts. Click Events to explore our programme.

Two halls are available for hire and there is a fully equipped kitchen. See Room Hire or contact us for more details. You will find our booking system and terms and conditions of hire there as well as a risk assessment for reference.

LING also manages two local outdoor spaces – the wonderful network of woodland paths around and beyond New Galloway golf course, and the old Garroch Estate Walled Garden.

If you want to get out and about in and around New Galloway, there are some wonderful walks of different lengths and degrees of challenge. From the main car park itself, there is a lovely three mile walk and just out beyond the golf course, there are lovely pathways to wander up, through the golf course woodlands. Great views from some higher vantage points. You can take a car along and there is parking available in a layby, or you can walk there from the golf course club house. Stay close to the lower edge, if you are skirting it, until you reach the little gate into the woodland.

There is now a path from there that links, via a brand new and rather beautiful bridge over the Knocknairling Burn, with Core Path number 177. More details including photographs coming soon.

A little further afield, you can find your way to the Garroch Estate.  Again, there are beautiful walks through acres of grounds though please note that some are out of use due to the damage done by gales earlier this year. Some are on farm vehicle tracks and others on woodland trails. The owner of the estate is pleased for people to enjoy the walks there, but please do be aware that this is a working farm and take great care not to alarm any animals. A group of volunteers is working to keep these pathways clear and well signposted. If you go on a Saturday morning, you might find a few of them at work. And, if you can offer a helping hand at all, they’ll be your friends for life.

On the Garroch Estate, there’s also a delightful old walled garden. It is in the process of restoration and you are welcome to browse and relax. Balm for the soul. It is being lovingly restored by volunteers from local communities. It’s open to the public to enjoy, so come and see the new rose walk, the flourishing vegetable plots, the fruit trees and enjoy the birdsong. There are sometimes events held there, like apple-pressing, so do look out for notices to see what you might be able to take part in. On three Saturdays a month there’s a Wildlife Watch group for children. There is shelter available on wet days in the bothy, and there is now even a compost toilet for your convenience!

You can follow us on Facebook at Local Initiatives in New Galloway. Our purpose is to promote health and wellbeing in New Galloway and Kells Parish and the wider Glenkens. The initial focus was on saving the Town Hall from closure and resurrecting it to its central role in village life and it has been wonderful to see people using and enjoying the venue again. Click Events to find out more. If you would like to become a member of LING (which is free) please email info@ling.org.uk and we’ll get back to you. Membership means we can keep you in touch with what is happening from time to time and, if you are interested in finding out more, perhaps even helping in someway occasionally, then it’s a good way of making contact.

As well as building a membership of LING, we invite our supporters to become ‘Friends of the Town Hall’ by signing up to pay £5 per month (£8 for a couple) by standing order. It helps enormously with our running costs and enables us to keep making small step-by-step improvements. Friends are invited to a summer wine and cheese event with an opportunity to review progress and are entered in a twice-yearly prize draw with a prize of £50. If you’d like to be a Friend of New Galloway Town Hall, again please contact us at info@ling.org.uk.

LING is a Scottish Charity (SC047553), based at Rathan House, High Street, New Galloway, DG7 3RL. You can find our formal LING documents – our trustees, constitution, annual reports, accounts, AGM minutes and our Board meeting minutes here.

LING has been supported by Dumfries and Galloway, The Glasgow Galloway Association, Glenkens Charity Shop, Architectural Heritage Foundation, Resilient Heritage, Awards for All, the Blackcraig Windfarm Community Trust Fund , the Hugh Fraser Foundation and Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership. Additionally in relation to the renovations we have been funded by the Community Ownership Fund, the Garfield Weston Foundation, The Big Lottery Community Fund, CARES Let’s Do Net Zero Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, The Winnifred Kennedy Foundation, and The Howat Trust.