She lives in a house dating back more than 500 years, whose thick stone walls and narrow passageways are testament to its antiquity.
And Mary Armstrong is keenly aware of the history of her home at the Clachan of Penninghame which, along with its surrounds, was once a significant ecclesiastical centre.
The ancient churchyard still exists but the old manse and pre-Reformation Bishop’s Palace – once a stopover for Scottish kings and queens on pilgrimages to St Ninian’s shrine at Whithorn – vanished long ago.
