Signigicant times in Kirkmahoe History

Significant times in Kirkmahoe History

The Third Statistical Account for Dumfriesshire was written by the late Walter Duncan of Newlands, who described Kirkmahoe as being “shaped like an irregular pear or kite with the narrow end pointing south towards the town of Dumfries. It is seven and a half miles long and its greatest breadth is five and a half miles. From the fertile land lying along the left bank (looking south downriver) of the river Nith, known in former days as the corn kist or granary of Nith, the land rises in billowy undulations with a west and south-west exposure to lonely moors, which form the southern outliers of the Queensberry hills.” The CANMORE National Record of the Historic Environment has over 200 entries listed for the parish. There are many sites which show evidence of habitation up to 6000 years ago. During the Bronze Age, the weather was probably warmer and the main centres of population The old pulpit in the Cameronian Chapel would have been on the moorland at Quarrelwood which today is rather inhospitable. The large number of field-clearance cairns found on the moors is evidence that crops were once grown there. A small beaker-like vessel and many human bones were discovered in one of a number of cremation cemeteries on Whitestanes Moor during excavations in 1962. A number of standing stones have disappeared since Victorian times, and there were stone circles at Newlands, Burntscarth Green Farm and Foregirth Farm. Kirkmahoe has a number of Iron Age forts. The most impressive is Mullach which lies above Dalswinton. Others include Castlehill, near Duncow and The Belt, also near Dalswinton. It is likely that these were used mainly as gathering places and that the population lived on the lower lying ground most of the time. As the River Nith meandered southwards, it would have provided good fishing, and the rich alluvial soil would have been ideal for growing crops. At this time, the landscape would probably have been one of small islands in a wide, frequently-flooded valley. A dugout log-boat was found close to Kirkmahoe Church, near the burn known as ‘The Lake’.

There is much evidence of Roman activity in Kirkmahoe, as it lay on the junction of the north/south and east/west Roman roads in this part of south west Scotland. Numerous marching camps can be detected, in particular at Gallaberry and beside the Nith at Dalswinton. The two successive forts at Dalswinton predate the building of Hadrian’s Wall. The second fort was of a size to accommodate a large mobile force and it is speculated that this force was intended to prevent attacks on those building Hadrian’s Wall c.122 AD. Following the abandonment of Dalswinton fort, a smaller cavalry fort at Carzield which had two periods of occupation between 140 AD and around 200 AD was built. Two Roman Signal Stations have also been identified, one near Carnsalloch and the other at Butterhole Brae, Dalswinton.

ROMAN SEAL BOX

Found at Carzield Roman Fort

ROMAN FIGURINE OF CUPID

This bronze figurine was found in the remains of the armourer’s furnace at Carzield Fort.

Modern written history of Kirkmahoe begins when, on 10th February 1306 John Comyn, rode from his castle at Dalswinton and met Robert the Bruce at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries. They were bitter rivals for the Scottish crown and although their swords had been left outside the church, a fight broke out in front of the high altar and John Comyn ended up dead. St Mungo was also known as St Kentigern. There was strong rivalry between the Celtic and Roman forms of Christianity. At the feudalisation of church and state under King David 1(1124-1153), Roman St Quentin replaced Celtic St Kentigern as patron of the one parish church in Kirkmahoe and the new parish church was put under the patronage of the barons of Dalswinton. During medieval times when Dalswinton Castle was abandoned it was replaced by a tower house on the low ground below the old castle. Tower houses were also built at Carzield and possibly Templand Hill/ Carnsalloch and Duncow which was probably the largest settlement in the parish at this time. Covenanters are known to have held conventicles in Kirkmahoe. The most important location for these was on Shaws Moor above Dalswinton. Braehead farm is known to have been used as a refuge for prominent covenanters hiding from pursuing Government Dragoons. The Agricultural Revolution took place between approximately 1760 and 1830. Patrick Miller, an Edinburgh banker, who bought Dalswinton estate in 1785, spear-headed improvements in Kirkmahoe. He demolished the remains of the old castle and built Dalswinton House on the site. Dalswinton Village was built to house estate workers, a number of whom had been displaced by the enclosing of land, although Miller was a benevolent laird. At this time, many of the farmhouses were rebuilt in local sandstone, and fields were divided by stone walls and hedges. Drainage and new crops were introduced and yields improved. The Lowland Clearances had a considerable effect on the population, sometimes more serious than the much-publicised Highland Clearances. Many families lost their toe-hold on the land as new estates were developed, causing them to emigrate, mainly to Canada and Australia. Miller had an obsession with naval architecture and his natural inventiveness led him into experimenting with the mechanical propulsion of vessels. His first efforts involved hand-cranked paddles. The next challenge was to develop a steamboat and to this end he collaborated with the mining engineer William Symington. On 14 October 1788 their pioneering 25-foot-long, double-hull steamboat (claimed to be Britain’s first) was successfully trialled on Dalswinton Loch. It reached a speed of five miles per hour. In the same period, the estate of Carnsalloch grew and the Palladian Mansion was built. A new church was established in Kirkton in 1823. Metalled roads replaced the tracks which largely still followed the lines of the old Roman roads as did the main road through the parish which became the coaching route from Dumfries to Glasgow. In the latter 19th century, private estates were established at Newlands and Duncow.

Patrick Miller’s Steamboat

The Education Act of 1872 made attendance at school compulsory. Several existing religious and private schools in the parish closed. The stone from the private school in Kirkton was used to build Kirkton Village Hall and a new school was built in the village of Duncow. The school at Dalswinton operated until 1963.

The most significant change in the parish since the turn of the end of World War II was the building of homes. In Kirkton at the south end it began with prefabricated houses in 1947, followed soon afterwards by two-storey, steel houses for agricultural workers. Further development took place in Barrasgate in 1964. All but one of the ‘prefabs’ were demolished in the 1980s and replaced by single storey and two storey housing in Kirkton Village. There were other pockets of development at Dalswinton in 1952 and in Auchencairn. Despite being so close to Dumfries, Kirkmahoe remains essentially a rural parish. The population is now only about half of what it was at its peak in the early 1800s. If you are interested in learning more about the history of the area there are numerous sources available: the three Statistical Accounts of Scotland for Dumfriesshire, CANMORE, and The Transactions of Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society (DGNHAS) are all available to view and read online. You can also consult the reference section of the Ewart Library in Dumfries.