Sun shines on Galloway outing
Ramblers learn Kirkcudbright’s long history
Duncanrig Ramblers headed to Kirkcudbright for their latest outing and were rewarded with lovely weather.
The walk started with a short climb through Barhill Wood before crossing over farmland and entering a peninsula known as St Mary’s Isle, which divides the bays of Manxman’s Lake and Goat Well Bay.
The point of the isle is known as Paul Jones’s Point.
John Paul Jones, born near Kirkbean in south west Scotland in 1747, is famous in the United States as the father of the American navy. In Britain he is remembered as a pirate.
In April 1778 he entered Kirkcudbright Bay, planning to capture the Earl of Selkirk who lived on St Mary’s Isle and to exchange him for captured American sailors. On finding that the Earl was absent Jones’s crew looted the mansion.
Duncanrig members did a loop round the isle through forest before walking back into Kirkcudbright along the River Dee and then enjoyed lunch at the harbour.
Kirkcudbright’s name comes from “kirk of St Cuthbert”.
A monastery had been established there by 1000AD and in the 1100s the area was
also home to a Cistercian nunnery and an Augustinian priory, as well as to a royal castle. A Franciscan friary followed in the 1200s.
In the 1400s over a quarter of Scotland’s cloth exports were loaded at the quays
on the River Dee, bound for destinations as far afield as Spain.
The castle and much of the town were destroyed by pirates from the Isle of Man in 1507.
A town wall was built in the 1540s, which allowed the residents to beat off an English attack in 1560.
MacLellan’s Castle, built in the centre of Kirkcudbright in the 1570s, was more for show than for defence.
After lunch the ramblers followed the Dee Walk upriver, meeting the coach just past the Tongland hydro electric power station, which is part of the Galloway Hydro Electric Power Scheme and was constructed in the 1930s.
The group then made their way to Dumfries and enjoyed high tea in a hotel.
The next outing is planned for Sunday in the Scottish Borders. Visit www.duncanrig. com for details all club activities. Visitors welcome.