Today, North Clutag is an ordinatry working dairy farm, but in the 1930's it was home to an extraordinary man. John McNeilie, who wrote under the pen name of Ian Niall, spent his boyhood days here. He scandalised the local community by publishing 'The Wigtown Ploughman', in which he described in unflinching details the hardships of life endured by farm labourers in the early years of the 20th century. The book sparked calls for change and progress, but locally he was ostracised by many neighbours who were all to recognisable on the page. McNeillie went on to publish more thatn 40 books, including the hugely popular 'The Poacher's Handbook', and 'No Resting Place', a remarkably sympathetic book on travelling gypsies, written as it was in 1948.