Plan of Cargen, 1874

Cargen estate was bought in the middle of the 19th century by Patrick Dudgeon, of Edinburgh, who had retired at the age of 33 after working with a company in China.  He built Cargen House in 1872 and spent his long retirement looking   after his estate and pursuing his many scientific and cultural interests.  He was a noted mineralogist and geologist and had his own museum and weather     station.  He was also a director of Crichton Royal Institution.               He died in 1895 at the age of 77 and was succeeded by his son Robert who      became a county councillor and Lord Lieutenant of the Stewartry.  He was also the prime mover in the setting up of the West of Scotland Agricultural        College.  He moved into Cargen House in 1901  the year in which his eldest son Patrick tragically died from typhoid at the age of 23 while serving as a 2nd  lieutenant with the KOSB in the Boer War in South Africa.