TDGNHAS Series III, Volume 89

A total of 13,135 rook nests in 350 rookeries were counted in the 43 parishes of Dumfriesshire in April and May 2015. Although this represents a decrease of 20 rookeries compared to the number recorded in 2010, nest numbers increased by 785 in that period. The average number of nests per rookery increased to 38; something that has not been recorded during either the period of rook population growth from 1921 to 1993 or the period of population decline from 1993 to 2010. For the first time, no rookeries of more than 200 nests were recorded in 2015, the maximum count being 187 nests (cf. 217 in 2010). The number of rookeries containing over 100 nests increased from 20 to 24 from 2010 to 2015 — the first time an increase in this rookery size class has been recorded since 1993. Although it is of concern that the distribution of breeding colonies has again declined, the apparent increase in the breeding population and the cessation of the historic decline is perhaps a cause for optimism regarding the fortunes of the rook in this county.

Iron Age Galloway is a bit of a conundrum, difficult to clearly differentiate from the Iron Age characteristics of other regions of Scotland but often treated as somewhat distinct nonetheless. The following paper attempts to make sense of the Iron Age settlement patterns of this region and examine if these are significantly distinguishable from those apparent across other regions of Scotland.

A Building Record of the Fish House at Tongland was made by the authors in November 2013, prior to the re-development of the building. This revealed the nature of the midnineteenth century structure and reflected its use in relation to the seasonal salmon fishery at the nearby Doachs of Tongland on the River Dee. There is also anecdotal evidence for its operation, which included the dispatch of salmon to distant markets. The fishery closed in the 1930s with the development of the Galloway Hydro-Electric Scheme, but a range of documentary evidence indicates that this was a valuable (and sometimes controversial) fishery, operated as an economic unit from 1642 and probably much earlier. Quite possibly the canons of nearby Tongland Abbey exploited this natural resource from the early thirteenth century, although there is no surviving physical or documentary evidence for this.
 

The claim that there was a pre-reformation parish of Irving, which took its name from the local family and was later incorporated into the present parish of Kirkpatrick Fleming in Dumfriesshire, was first raised in the Statistical Account of 1794, and is still a popular understanding today. On the other hand the claim was questioned by Chalmers as early as 1807, and was declared to be ‘a myth’ by Adamson in 2010. This article lists extensive relevant evidence pertaining to the parishes of Irving and Kirkpatrick Fleming, including some taken from hitherto unpublished family papers, and goes on to discuss why the alleged parish, if it did exist, was so named, where it was located and when it was conjoined, and also why Kirkpatrick Fleming was so named. It becomes clear that all the contemporary evidence points towards there never having been a parish of Irving, and that the parish of Kirkpatrick Fleming was so named before the Irving family became significant landowners in the area. The article then considers the sources that seem to explain why and by whom the alleged parish was ‘invented’, and shows that both its likely proponents, a laird and a minister, soon abandoned their fabrication. Finally the likely origin of the Dumfriesshire surname of Irving is attributed to the medieval Ayrshire port of Irvine. While the authors of the Old Statistical Account give valuable insights into contemporary life, this cameo is an example of why we should be less trustful of their recording of local history. 
 

John Semple was a revivalist preacher who rose to prominence during the Ulster Revival. Appointed the first parish minister of Carsphairn, he quickly became renowned for his powerful preaching and drew people from far and wide to his communion seasons. He inspired a deep Christian faith and commitment in many who came under his ministry, and his influence helped establish south-west Scotland in its strong Covenanting sympathies. A neglected figure in recent years, it is proposed that he had far more influence on the years of the Covenanting struggles than has been recognised.

This article seeks to explore and assess enlightenment influence upon the inhabitants of Dumfries and Galloway. There is a substantial and ever-increasing literature about the subject for Scotland as a whole, though almost nothing concerning our three south-western counties. That has now changed during the last few years with the appearance of several studies which are of great assistance in our doonhame quest.

This article is based on a bundle of papers forming part of a case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh between William Kirkpatrick of Conheath and Thomas Chisholm formerly of Kirkbean, both near Dumfries, discovered during research into the life and times of David Currie of Newlaw (one of Kirkpatrick’s partners) in 2011. These papers provide new information about Lot 52 on St John’s Island and the voyages of the Lovely Nelly of Whitehaven, carrying settlers there in 1774 and 1775.

Lot 52 had been drawn by three people, all by the name of Douglas. The settlement was neglected until 1775, when it was taken over by people named Tead [sic], Dodd, Curry [sic] and Fontenalle. They, too, did not bring out settlers (part of the requirements for ownership of lots), so the land reverted back to the Crown for dispersal.

Because there were so many St John’s in Canada, including in Labrador, Newfoundland and New Brunswick, in 1799 St John’s Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence was renamed Prince Edward Island, after George III’s fourth son Edward, Duke of Kent.

John Heathcoat was the inventor of a steam ploughing engine which he demonstrated on marshland near Dumfries in 1837. The organisers were disappointed with its performance, and thereafter it was believed that the machine had sunk into the marsh; but there is evidence against that account of its fate.

John Rutherford (1842–1925) was a local photographic pioneer and well worthy of study. Three published papers will result in a fairly comprehensive review of his recording of scenes of South-West Scotland at the end of the Victorian period. The current paper, which is the third and final one, features his photographs of Dumfries. The first paper in the series presented biographical information and a study of the excavations at Birrens in the 1890s, both aspects of Annandale. The second paper dealt with his photographs of Nithsdale from north to south. Each paper has quotations from writings largely contemporaneous with Rutherford’s photographic work.

In 2012–2013 Alastair and Catriona Duncan recorded nineteen audio interviews with over-sixty residents or former residents of the parish of Kirkpatrick Fleming, Dumfries and Galloway, and with four groups: older people, 30-year-olds, new residents, pupils of Primary 6. Kirkpatrick (as the village of Kirkpatrick Fleming is commonly known) lies twelve miles south-east of Lockerbie and three miles north-west of Gretna and the English border. Individual interviews between an hour and three hours long, took the form of life histories. Questions were also asked about the respondents’ sense of local and national identity and about their speech. In the 1930s the village of Kirkpatrick had many shops and there was a vibrant community life based round the Victoria Hall and the church. Some housing conditions were very poor. School discipline was harsh. During the Second World War, the population was expanded by the presence of evacuees, Honduran woodcutters, Canadian air force personnel and prisoners of war. A strong community spirit persisted into the 1950s and 1960s, but communal activities — outings, dances, sports clubs, churchgoing and Sunday School attendance — began to decline. Larger farms have increased in size and modernized mainly into large-scale milk production. An influx of new residents has stabilized the population. Older residents and thirty-year-olds have a strong sense of belonging to Kirkpatrick and of being Scottish, but are unanimously against independence. Speech is the main marker of belonging but differences in speech are fading. All generations share three sites of memory: the school, the river Kirtle and the one remaining shop.