LATEST NEWS: Join us at the Hall on Saturday 14th June 2025 for our Summer Gala & BBQ followed by
Sunday 15th June for the Solway Coast Big Onion Gravel Cycling Event
Maxwell Memorial Hall
The Maxwell Memorial Hall is owned and run for the community by a Scottish Charitable Incorporate Organisation (SCIO.) It aims to provide recreational and social facilities for the local community of Kirkgunzeon and the surrounding area in line with the charitable purpose of its constitution. Since it opened in 1907 the Hall has been the venue for many community events and social occasions -View a Brief history of the Hall. Following the closure of Kirkgunzeon Church in 2013, the Hall is now the only community asset within Kirkgunzeon, other than the local primary school, and is our key resource for community based activities. It offers an annual programme of events and activities. It can be hired for private functions and recreational activities such as the regular yoga class. The Hall is also used by Kirkgunzeon primary school and their school ‘cluster’ partners of Palnackie and Colvend.
Hiring the Hall
The purpose of Maxwell Memorial Hall is to provide recreational facilities for the community of Kirkgunzeon and surrounding area by promoting, developing and maintaining the Hall as a focal point for recreational and social facilities. As such the Hall offers facilities to individuals, groups and organisations for meetings, social events and activities.
MMH receives no statutory funding and is totally reliant on fundraising to maintain the Hall and develop the activities and services it can offer the community. To contribute to the annual running costs of the Hall a charge is made for the hire of the Hall facilities. During 2024-25 these costs are as follows:
| Hire of Hall & Green for parties & events | £80 |
|---|---|
| Hire of Hall for Children's Parties | £40 |
| Hire of the Hall by the hour (any use) | £12 per hour |
For more information on hiring the hall, please contact us.
The layout of the Hall is shown below
Community Events
You can keep up to date with Hall events and activities through our Community Updates. These are posted on the Kirkgunzeon Community Facebook page and Community noticeboards. You can receive these via email if sign you up as a Friend of Maxwell Memorial Hall by contacting us. Hall events include our annual village Gala and BBQ, the World famous Kirkgunzeon Duck Race and New Year ceilidh. The annual Remembrance Sunday service is held at the War Memorial outside the Hall. We also hold regular
'pop up' pub and quiz nights, which often feature local mobile catering such as The Pizza Wagon.
Community Updates
The Hall is also a venue for events which aim to connect the community with our local cultural and natural heritage. Regular community moth surveys have been facilitated by the South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre, which is based in the village. A Kirkgunzeon history exhibition was held in 2019, and in 2020 a new youth club, aimed at primary age children, was established.
Activities and events at the Hall provide an opportunity to bring together people of all ages from the local community. Such events are central to the purpose of the Hall and are a positive way to promote a sense of belonging within the community. They also provide some of the income required to cover running costs and basic maintenance of the hall. More information on the Hall SCIO and details of our annual accounts is published on the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator OSCR.
Membership
Membership of the Hall charity is free and open to anyone aged over 16 whose main home is in Kirgunzeon or the surrounding area. The charity is managed by trustees (the Hall Committee) who are appointed by members at the Annual general meeting. For more information on the Charity or to apply for membership please contact us. You can also find information on the SCIO, including annual accounts, through the Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator. Visit the OSCR website here.
Trustees 2024-25
Carol-Anne Scott (Chair) Tel: 01387 760280
Ann Purvis (Secretary) Tel: 01387 760254
Fiona Bentley (Treasurer)
John Maxwell Tel: 01387 760678
Josh Campbell Tel: 01387 760280
Kim Phillips Tel: 01387 760543
Simon Eccles Tel: 07427 635238
Lewis Fisher Tel: 07864294454
Our Vision
Hall Trustees have, in consultation with the community, developed a vision for the future of the Hall and the activities and services it offers. This vision is for the Hall to act as a welcoming, comfortable and energy efficient community hub, which brings together and supports our community and offer facilities and services that we can all be proud of. This includes continuing to support many of the activities that currently take place and expanding these in line with the needs and wishes of the community. We see this as a positive way to promote social cohesion, feelings of community goodwill, belonging and civic pride. We also feel that bringing the community together for activities of this nature can help to reduce feelings of social isolation and promote good mental health and a sense of wellbeing.
We hope to use the Hall for more activities related to our local cultural and natural heritage, to develop activities for local young people, and to provide a community pub / cafe facility. In the longer term we have aspirations for the Hall to act as an emergency reception centre and hub for the community resilience plan and to develop links with the local arts and crafts community (for example as a venue for the Dumfries and Galloway Spring Fling Arts and Crafts Festival and offering craft related activities.)
Hall Development
To maintain the functioning of the Hall and support its ongoing development, Hall trustees, working with the community, developed plans for a new extension to the Hall through a feasibility study carried out between 2017-19. Details of the consultation activities carried out and the outcomes of the feasibility study can be found in our 2020 summary business plan below. However, since this was produced difficulties with the Hall roof have become urgent and refurbishment of the roof has now become an urgent priority so current fundraising is targeted on this issue.
Acknowledgements
Maxwell Memorial Hall SCIO gratefully acknowledges the help and support of many community volunteers, organisations and external funders.
These include Dalbeattie Community Initiative, Dalbeattie and District Lions, Dalbeattie Rotary Club, Dumfries and Galloway Council, the Galloway Association of Glasgow, Kirkgunzeon Community Wind Farm Fund, Nineveh Charitable Trust, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre, Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway and Youth Scotland.
This website is run by the Maxwell Memorial Hall Charity and we welcome your feedback and suggestions to help develop it.