A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
A vision of Britain through time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
Kirkinner, a post-office village and a coast parish of SE Wigtownshire. The village has a station on the Wigtownshire railway, 2¼ miles S by W of Wigtown. It took its name from St Kenneir, a virgin who suffered martyrdom at Cologne in 450.
The parish, since 1630 comprising the ancient parishes of Kirkinner and Longcastle, is bounded NW by Kirkcowan, N by Wigtown, E by Wigtown Bay, S by Sorbie and Glasserton, and W by Mochrum. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 6½ miles; its utmost breadth, from E to W, exclusive of foreshore, is 57/8 miles; and its area is 17,949¼ acres, of which 2559 are foreshore and 139½ water. Wigtown Bay extends here 2¾ miles south-south-eastward, and, with a breadth at high water of from 23/8 to 3½ miles, at low water of from 1 furlong to 5 furlongs, at the efflux of the tide leaves on the Kirkinner side a belt of dry sands nearly 1¾ mile broad. The Bladenoch winds 65/8 miles east-by-southward along all the northern border to its mouth near the town of Wigtown; and several streamlets traverse the interior to either the Bladenoch or Wigtown Bay. Dowalton Loch (11 x 5¼ furl.), at the meeting point with Sorbie and Mochrum, was drained in 1862-63. a belt of low carse ground, a mile or more in breadth, extends along Wigtown Bay; and all the rest of the land is a congeries of rising grounds, hillocks, and small hills, with intervening hollows. The hills are gently outlined, and mostly covered with rich verdure; some of them are embellished or crowned with plantation; and the higher have elevations of only 200 or 300 feet above sea-level. The predominant rocks are Silurian, greywacke chiefly and greywacke slate; and they yield but little good building material. The soil of the belt of flat land in the E is rich alluvium; of the other lands is mostly-gravelly, by nature thin, light, and unfertile, but so improved bi art, as everywhere now to exhibit a highly cultivated aspect. Tracts that were formerly covered with moss, and encumbered with granite boulders, have all been thoroughly reclaimed; and now not an acre can properly be called waste. Dairy-farming-is a principal industry. The Rev. Andrew Symson, author of A Large Description of Galloway, was minister from 1663 to 1686. Antiquities, other than those of Baldoon and Dowalton, are the site of a Caledonian stone circle, vestiges of two circular camps, and the rude egg-shaped ` Hole-stone ' of Crows. Barnbarroch, also noticed separately, is the only mansion; and 4 proprietors hold each an annual value of more, 5 of less, than £500. Kirkinner is in the presbytery of Wigtown and synod of Galloway; the living is worth £363. The parish church, erected in 1828, is a handsome edifice, with 600 sittings, a square tower, and an ancient four-holed cross. Three public schools-Kirkinner, Longcastle, and Malzie-with respective accommodation for 132, 83, and 58 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 119, 46, and 31, and rants of £96, 14s., £35s, 4s. 9d., and £24, 15s. 11d.Valuation (1860) £13, 588, (1883) £16, 084, 11s. 6d. Pop. (1801) 1160, (1841) 1769, (1861) 1716, (1v871) 1548, (1881) 1597.—Ord. Sur., sh. 4, 1857.
(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)
| Linked entities: | |
|---|---|
| Feature Description: | "a post-office village and a coast parish" (ADL Feature Type: "populated places") |
| Administrative units: | Kirkinner ScoP Wigtownshire ScoCnty |
| Place: | Kirkinner |
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