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Scotland’s thousand-year old shopping street is home to country’s BEST sausages

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Scotland’s thousand-year old shopping street is home to country’s BEST sausages

Friars Vennel in Dumfries is one of the oldest streets in the country, with historic links to figures such as Robert the Bruce and Robert Burns. The narrow medieval thoroughfare is thought to date back at least 1,000 years.

St Ninian is believed to have founded a religious community at the top of the what is now Friars Vennel in the fourth century. For hundreds of years, it was the walkway for the friars to collect water from the River Nith or go to work in the fields.




Devorgilla, Lady of Galloway – one of the most powerful women of the era – had a bridge built at the foot of Friars Vennel in 1270, and the bridge – rebuilt in the 15th century – still spans the Nith today.

In 1306, Robert the Bruce and Red Comyn entered Greyfriars Church from Friars Vennel before the Bruce stabbed his rival to death at the altar in one of the most pivotal moments in Scottish history.

READ MORE: Bear Grylls discovers he is related to Robert the Bruce on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?

In later years, Burns drank in the inns of Friars Vennel during his time in Dumfries and throughout the 20th century it became a bustling high street always busy with shoppers and pedestrians.

Now, however, Friars Vennel has a new claim to fame – as the home of the best bangers in Scotland. Local butchers shop Mogerleys won the coveted Scottish Craft Butchers (SCB) ultimate Diamond Award in the biennial Scottish Pork Sausage Championship.

Friars Vennel, Dumfries, as it looks today

Daniel West only took over the shop from his uncle Gordon Little earlier this year and introduced his grandfather’s 30-year-old recipe, which immediately proved a hit with his customers.

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