Lockerbie

Lockerbie, town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Lockerbie lies in Annandale, north of Annan. Historically, it was an important market town for the surrounding area, the scene of lamb fairs on Lamb Hill in the 18th century. Recently, however, it has become known throughout Britain and the world because of the Lockerbie air tragedy of 1988. On December 21 a terrorist bomb exploded in a Pan-Am aircraft flying from Frankfurt to New York, via London. Everyone on the aeroplane was killed. Parts of the aeroplane crashed into houses in Lockerbie, also killing people on the ground. The final death toll was 270. The trial of two Libyan suspects took place more than a decade after the tragedy had occurred, and lasted from May 2000 until January 2001. This largest murder prosecution in British legal history was held under the rules of the Scottish legal system at a former US airbase, Camp Zeist, near Utrecht in the Netherlands, which for the duration of the trial was named Scottish territory. One of the suspects, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was found guilty of putting the bomb in a suitcase that travelled from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany, and was then transferred to Heathrow Airport in London and finally on to the Pan-Am flight 103. His co-defendant, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty.

Burnswark is a steep hill just outside Lockerbie, and the location of an ancient fort, later taken over by the Romans. It was the scene of the Battle of Brunanburh (ad 937) between the English and the combined forces of the Scots and Norse armies. Population 3,982 (1991).