Everything about The Stewartry Of Kirkcudbright totally explained
The
Stewartry of Kirkcudbright (;
Siorrachd Chille Chuithbheirt in
Gaelic) or
Kirkcudbrightshire, was formerly a
county of south-western
Scotland. It was also known as
East Galloway, forming the larger
Galloway region with
Wigtownshire.
Kirkcudbrightshire bounded on the north and north-west by
Ayrshire, on the west and southwest by
Wigtownshire, on the south and southeast by the
Irish Sea and the
Solway Firth, and on the east and northeast by
Dumfriesshire. It included the small islands of
Hestan and
Little Ross. It had an area of 575,565 acres (2,323 km²). That area is now part of the
unitary authority of
Dumfries and Galloway, and is additionally administratively used for
property registration.
In
1372 Archibald the Grim, a natural son of Sir
James Douglas "the Good", became
Lord of Galloway and received in perpetual fee the Crown lands between the
Nith and the
Cree. He appointed a
steward to collect his revenues and administer justice, and there thus arose the designation of the "Stewartry of Kirkcudbright". (see
History below)
Its designation as 'Kirkcudbrightshire' is therefore historically incorrect. The county is still called
The Stewartry by its inhabitants and forms the
Stewartry area of Dumfries and Galloway Council, represented by eight Stewartry councillors. Local administration of the district today is overseen by a Stewartry Area Manager, based in the county town of Kirkcudbright.
The name Kirkcudbrightshire as alternative to Stewartry of Kirkcudbright appears to have been invented by the
Royal Mail in the
19th century.
Geography
The north-western part of the former county is rugged, wild and desolate.
In this quarter the principal mountains are
Merrick 843 m (2764 ft), the highest in the south of Scotland, and the group of the
Rinns of Kells, the chief peaks of which are
Corserine 814 m (2669 ft),
Carlins Cairn 807 m (2650 ft),
Meikle Millyea 746 m (2446 feet) and
Millfire 716 m (2350 feet). Towards the south-west the chief eminences are
Lamachan 717 (2350 ft),
Larg 676 m (2216 ft), and the bold mass of
Cairnsmore of Fleet 711 m (2331 ft). In the south-east the only imposing height is Criffel 569 m (1868 ft). In the north rises the majestic hill of
Cairnsmore of
Carsphairn 797 m (2614 ft), and close to the Ayrshire border is the
Windy Standard 698 m (2290 feet). The southern section of the shire is mostly level or undulating, but characterised by picturesque scenery.
The shore is generally bold and rocky, indented by numerous estuaries forming natural harbours, which however are of little use for
commerce owing to the shallowness of the sea. Large stretches of sand are exposed in the Solway at low water and the rapid flow of the tide has often occasioned loss of life.
The number of "burns" and "waters" is remarkable, but their length seldom exceeds 7 or 8 miles (13 km). Among the longer rivers are the Cree, which rises in Loch Moan and reaches the sea near Creetown after a course of about 30 miles, during which it forms the boundary, at first of
Ayrshire and then of
Wigtownshire; the Dee or Black Water of Dee (so named from the peat by which it's coloured), which rises in Loch Dee and after a course mainly S.E. and finally S., enters the sea at
St Mary's Isle below
Kirkcudbright, its length being nearly 36 miles (58 km); the Urr, rising in Loch Urr on the
Dumfriesshire border, falls into the sea a few miles south of
Dalbeattie 27 miles (43 km) from its source; the
Ken, rising on the confines of Ayrshire, flows mainly in a southerly direction and joins the Dee at the southern end of
Loch Ken after a course of 24 miles (39 km) through lovely scenery; and the Deugh which, rising on the northern flank of the Windy Standard, pursues an extraordinarily winding course of 20 miles (32 km) before reaching the Ken. The
Nith, during the last few miles of its flow, forms the boundary with Dumfriesshire, to which county it almost wholly belongs.
The lochs and mountain tarns are many and well-distributed; but except for Loch Ken, which is about 6 miles (10 km) long by half a mile (1 km) wide, few of them attain noteworthy dimensions. There are several passes in the hill regions, but the only well-known glen is Glen Trool, not far from the district of
Carrick in Ayrshire, the fame of which rests partly on the romantic character of its scenery, which is very wild around Loch Trool, and more especially on its associations with
Robert the Bruce. It was here that when most closely beset by his enemies, who had tracked him to his fastness by sleuth hounds, Bruce with the aid of a few faithful followers won a surprise victory over the English in
1307 which proved the turning-point of his fortunes.
Geology
Silurian and
Ordovician rocks are the most important in this county; they're thrown into oft-repeated folds with their axes lying in a northeast-southwest direction. The Ordovician rocks are graptolitic black shales and grits of Llandeilo and Caradoc age. They occupy all the northern part of the county north-west of a line which runs some 3 m. north of New Galloway and just south of the Rinns of Kells. South-east of this line graptolitic Silurian shales of Llandovery age prevail; they're found around Dalry, Creetown, New Galloway, Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright.
Overlying the Llandovery beds on the south coast are strips of Wenlock rocks; they extend from Bridgehouse Bay to
Auchinleck and are well exposed in Kirkcudbright Bay, and they can be traced farther round the coast between the granite and the younger rocks.
Carboniferous rocks appear in small faulted tracts, unconformable on the Silurian, on the shores of the Solway Firth. They are best developed about Kirkbean, where they include a basal red
breccia followed by conglomerates, grits and cement stones of Calciferous
Sandstone age.
Brick-red sandstones of
Permian age just come within the county on the W. side of the Nith at Dumfries. Volcanic necks occur in the Permian and basalt dikes penetrate the Silurian at Borgue, Kirkandrews, etc.
Most of the highest ground is formed by the masses of
granite which have been intruded into the Ordovician and Silurian rocks; the Criffel mass lies about Dalbeattie and Bengairn, another mass extends east and west between the Cairnsmore of Fleet and Loch Ken, another lies northwest and southeast between Loch Doon and Loch Dee and a small mass forms the Cairnsmore of Carsphairn.
Glacial deposits occupy much of the low ground; the ice, having travelled in a southerly or south-easterly direction, has left abundant striae on the higher ground to indicate its course. Radiation of the ice streams took place from the heights of Merrick, Kells, etc; local moraines are found near Carsphairn and in the Deagh and Minnoch valleys. Glacial
drumlins of boulder clay lie in the vales of the Dee, Cree and Urr.
Climate and Agriculture
The climate and soil suit grass and green crops rather than grain. The annual rainfall averages 45.7 inches (1.16 m). The mean temperature for the year is 9 °C (48 °F); for 4 January 4°C (39 °F); for July 15°C (59 °F). The major part of the land is either waste or poor pasture.
Population and Government
The population was 39,985 in 1891 and 39,383 in 1901, when 98 persons spoke both Gaelic and English. The use of
Scots has never been enquired of in a census. The chief towns are
Castle Douglas (population in 1901, 3018),
Dalbeattie (3469),
Kirkcudbright (2386),
Maxwelltown (5796) with Creetown, and
Gatehouse of Fleet (1013). The county forms part of the sheriffdom of Dumfries and Galloway.
In 1930 Maxwelltown was transferred to Dumfriesshire, so it's debatable whether it should be regarded as part of the geographical county of Kirkcudbrightshire.
History
The country west of the Nith was originally peopled by a tribe of
Celts called Novantae, or Atecott, who long retained their independence. After
Agricola's invasion in
AD 79 the country nominally formed part of the
Roman province of
Britannia, but the evidence is against there ever having been a prolonged effective Roman occupation. The view that there were
Picts in Galloway in historical times is now rejected.
After the retreat of the Romans the Novantae remained for a time under their own chiefs, but in the 7th century accepted the overlordship of
Northumbria. The
Saxons, soon engaged in struggles with the
Norsemen, had no leisure to look after their tributaries, and early in the 9th century the Atecotts made common cause with the Vikings. There may also have been significant
Irish immigration in Galloway around that time. Henceforward they were styled, probably in contempt,
Gallgaidhel, or "stranger Gaels" (for example Gaels who fraternised with the foreigners), the Welsh equivalent for which,
Galiwyddel, gave rise to the name of "Galloway" (of which
Galway is a variant), which was applied to their territory and still denotes the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the shire of
Wigtown.
When Scotland consolidated under
Kenneth MacAlpine (crowned at
Scone in 844), Galloway didn't form part of the kingdom; but in return for the services rendered to him at this crisis Kenneth gave his daughter in marriage to the Galloway chief,
Olaf the White, and also conferred upon the men of Galloway the privilege of marching in the van of the Scottish armies, a right exercised and recognized for several centuries.
During the next two hundred years the country had no rest from Danish and Saxon incursions and the continual lawlessness of the Scandinavian rovers. When
Malcolm Canmore defeated and slew
Macbeth in
1057 he married the dead king's relative Ingibiorg, a Pictish princess, an event which marked the beginning of the decay of Norse influence. The Galloway chiefs hesitated for a time whether to throw in their lot with the Northumbrians or with Malcolm; but language, race and the situation of their country at length induced them to become lieges of the Scottish king.
By the close of the 11th century the boundary between England and Scotland was roughly delimited on what became permanent lines. The
feudal system ultimately destroyed the power of the Galloway chiefs, who resisted the innovation to the last. Several of the lords or "kings" of Galloway, a line said to have been founded by
Fergus, the greatest of them all, asserted in vain their independence of the Scottish crown; and in
1234 the line became extinct in the male branch on the death of Fergus's great-grandson
Alan.
One of Alan's daughters,
Dervorguilla, had married
John, 5th feudal lord Balliol, he and Dervorguilla being parents of King
John I of Scotland (
1292 -
1296), and the people, out of affection for Alan's daughter, were lukewarm in support of
Robert the Bruce. In
1308 the district was cleared of the English and brought under allegiance to the king, when the lordship of Galloway was given to
Edward Bruce. Later in the 14th century Galloway espoused the cause of Edward Baliol, who surrendered several counties, including Kirkcudbright, to
Edward III of England.
In
1372 Archibald the Grim, a natural son of
Sir James Douglas "the Good", became Lord of Galloway and received in perpetual fee the Crown lands between the Nith and the Cree. He appointed a steward to collect his revenues and administer justice, and there thus arose the designation of the "Stewartry of Kirkcudbright".
The high-handed rule of the Douglases created general discontent, and when their treason became apparent their territory was overrun by the king's men in
1455; Douglas was attainted, and his honours and estates were forfeited. In that year the great stronghold of the
Thrieve, the most important fortress in Galloway, which Archibald the Grim had built on the Dee immediately to the west of the modern town of
Castle Douglas, was reduced and converted into a royal keep. (It was dismantled in
1640 by order of the
Estates in consequence of the hostility of its keeper, Lord Nithsdale, to the
Covenant.)
The famous cannon
Mons Meg, now in
Edinburgh Castle, is said, apparently on limited evidence, to have been constructed in order to aid
James III in this siege.
As the Douglases went down the Maxwells rose, and the debatable land on the south-east of Dumfriesshire was for generations the scene of strife and raid, not only between the two nations but also among the leading families, of whom the Maxwells, Johnstones and Armstrongs were always conspicuous. After the
battle of Solway Moss (
1542) the shires of Kirkcudbright and Dumfries fell under English rule for a short period. The treaty of
Norham (
24 March 1550) established a truce between the nations for ten years; and in
1552, the
Wardens of the Marches consenting, the debatable land ceased to be matter for debate, the parish of Canonbie being annexed to Dumfriesshire, that of Kirkandrews to
Cumberland.
Though at the
Reformation the Stewartry became fervent in its
Protestantism, it was to Galloway, through the influence of the great landowners and the attachment of the people to them, that
Mary Queen of Scots owed her warmest adherents, and it was from the coast of Kirkcudbright that she made her luckless voyage to England.
Even when the crowns of Scotland and England were united in
1603 turbulence continued; for trouble arose over the attempt to establish
episcopacy, and nowhere were the
Covenanters more cruelly persecuted than in Galloway.
After the
union (
1707) things mended slowly but surely, curious evidence of growing commercial prosperity being the enormous extent to which smuggling was carried on. No coast could serve the "free traders" better than the shores of Kirkcudbright, and the contraband trade flourished till the 19th century. The
Jacobite risings of
1715 and
1745 elicited small sympathy from the inhabitants of the shire.
Kirkcudbrightshire became part of the
Dumfries and Galloway Region in 1975, as the District of
Stewartry (which retained a district council until
1996). It maintains a strong regional identity and is a
Lieutenancy Area.
Stewartry Parishes
The Stewartry is composed of the following 29 civil
parishes
Bibliography
Sir Herbert Maxwell, History of Dumfries and Galloway (Edinburgh, 1896)
Rev. Andrew Symson, A Large Description of Galloway (1684; new ed., 1823)
Thomas Murray, The Literary History of Galloway (1822)
Rev. William Mackenzie, History of Galloway (1841)
P. H. McKerlie, History of the Lands and their Owners in Galloway (Edinburgh, 1870-1879)
Galloway Ancient and Modern (Edinburgh, 1891)
J. A. H. Murray, Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland (London, 1873).
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