PLACE in the Biosphere

Kirkcowan has been the focus of our past and present / people and places photograph project. We have selected old photographs and retaken them today to contrast and compare.

The new photo shows the present owners of the Blue House watching a vintage 1962 Fordson Major pass by. The driver, Jim Rae, takes his tractor, Reg. 369 UXS, to rallies and charity runs.

Thanks to the records of the Road Locomotive Society the steam roller has been identified as Aveling and Porter No 3260 supplied in October 1893 to The Upper District (Machars) authority. It was their Fleet No1 and was sold on to JJ Nelson of Glasgow by November 1903. So we can be pretty sure that the old photograph was taken in the late 1890s.

Fields are often named after a distinguishing feature on the farm and the field named Tank (left of drystone dyke) is has a brick-built water reservoir within its boundaries. It is a common name with 5 other farms in the area having a Tank Field.

This field has a long stretch of level ground which is unusual in an area where the land is characterised by its undulating landscape. The field has been utilised as the home to “Borgue International Airport”. When racing driver Innes Ireland lived nearby the runway was used by some famous visitors.

It may seem strange to us now but 300 years ago there were no villages instead the landscape was scattered with small fermtouns, usually collections of only three of four humble dwellings, where the inhabitants farmed the surrounding open countryside. The parish church was usually erected in an easily accessible location usually in the centre of the parish and was a meeting place for many in the community. However, it still comes as a surprise to many that the parish church yard is where markets and fairs were held long before towns and villages appeared.

In Glenluce an act granted in 1669 identifies the Kirk of Glenluce as a good place for a market because of its location in the centre of Wigtownshire where people need to pass on their travels to and from Ireland and England. The king granted Sir James Dalrymple, his heirs and successors, a weekly mercat upon Saturdays, with two free fairs yearly, the one upon the last Tuesday in May, the other upon the first Tuesday in August, to be kept at the kirk of Glenluce upon the lands of Balcail.

Andrew Symson's work "A Large Description of Galloway" written in the late 1690s described a fair on the Borgue coast at Kirkandrews (pictured above).

In the kirkyard of Kirkanders, upon the ninth day of August, there is a fair kept, called St Lawernce Fair, where all sorts of merchant-wares are to be sold; but the fair lasts only three or four hours, and then the people, who flock hither in great companies, drink and debauch, and commonly great lewdness is committed here at this fair.

It would appear that fairs and markets provided opportunities for inhabitants to purchase and trade good as well as take part in a wide range of social activities.

The ruin of Kirkdominae in the Stinchar Valley near Barr is the remains of a pre-reformation chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity (the place-name Kirkdominae will be a topic of another blog). Although the surviving remains of the chapel cannot be easily dated it is recorded that it was partly deconstructed in the mid-1600s to help build a new parish church at Barr. An anonymous ballad celebratesthe annual fair that held at the site on the last Sunday of May that only ceased in 1837. The ballad reveals the fair as it is experienced by a young man and sets the scene of stalls, drinking, eating, music, brawls and pretty girls and suggests that it was an important social event for people from miles around.

Field-names in the parish of Borgue can be used to identify locations where wildlife was a notable feature and sometimes indicates changes in land use or landscape features.

This field encloses Drummore Hill, (a name derived from the Gaelic druim mòr meaning big ridge), but the field is known as Cushie Wood. A copse is marked on the hilltop on old maps and is an example of a field-name identifying a historic landscape feature. The woodland appears to have been felled about 100 years ago.

Cushat or cushie-doo is a Scots word for a wood pigeon and in this field-name has been reduced to Cushie. Presumably the woodland was the haunt of this common wild bird that no doubt was a valuable ingredient for the farm kitchen.

The story of a runaway train that yo-yoed through Pinwherry Station inspired a song "Pinwherry Dip" written and recorded by Dave Goulder.

In the days of steam engines sometimes the load was too heavy to pull up the hill from Girvan and so half the freight was taken up to Pinmore and then the engine would go and get the remaining wagons. One night in the 1890s the unattended wagons at Pinmore ranway and free-wheeled down through Pinwherry Station and up the Barrhill Bank on the other side where they came to a halt, only to roll back again through the station at speed and up Pinmore Bank on the other side. This was repeated five or six times as the train trundled backwards and forwards through Pinwherry Station leading a sleepy track inspector who was staying the night to exclaim it was “the busiest country station he had ever tried to sleep at – trains through the night every ten minutes!”

Old photographs of the people and village of Kirkcowan are a remarkable resource that have featured in windows to create a Street Exhibition. A closer look at each photograph combined with local knowledge and a little research help reveal the story of a village.

This is a photograph of Kirkcowan School House and appears to show headmaster John McCallum, his wife Agnes and two grandchildren and was probably taken in the mid 1890s.

The school house was built in 1863 the year after the parish school was constructed in the top of the village close to the new Parish Church. The earlier parish school was located at the bottom of the village at Ballgreen between the Old Kirk and the Manse.

John had been appointed as the headmaster of the old school for a short while before moving into the new school house with Agnes where they raised six daughters and three sons. He remained in the house until 1898 when at the age of 72 he retired after 38 years of service as the headmaster.

John Cuthbert moved into the School House as the replacement headmaster and John McCallum moved to Storgan Villa in Church Street.

Very often, where two farms meet, the fields are named after the adjoining farm. The field named Boreland March (right of drystone dyke) is on Carrick Farm while Big Carrick (left of drystone dyke) is on Boreland Farm.

March is from Old English mearc via Anglo-French marcheand Scots merche meaning a border. The March Dykes Act 1661 required neighbouring landowners to split the cost of building a shared boundary when the land was enclosed. In southwest Scotland the term march dyke is used to describe the boundary of a farm. It was usually the first drystone dyke built when a farm was enclosed and is often taller than the dykes built later to subdivide the farmland.

This name was recorded as Hac Noose in a list of field-names collected over 20 years ago by Adam Gray. Although now known as the Kennel Field the alternative name appears to refer to the rocks on the shore below the field and is probably derived from Old English haca-nōs meaning hook-nose or hook-shaped headland. The shape of the shore has changed through the centuries but the tide-covered rocks below this field do form a hook shape.

This photograph was taken in the 1860s and the two-story building with the carriages outside, on the left of the photograph, was the Commercial Hotel. It was described at the time as being the principal hotel in Kirkcowan with 10 rooms – it must have been ideal for weary visitors arriving on the newly opened railway.  

Thomas Hunter / Scott Hunter  

In the early 1860s Thomas Hunter was the inn keeper and later in the decade Scott Hunter took it over. Born in Midlothian Thomas was a merchant with a grocer shop when in 1845 he married a local woman with the same surname, Arrabella Hunter. She died 2 years later and Thomas then married Mary Tully in 1848 and raised a family at the Commercial Hotel. Both Thomas and Mary died in 1864 and the hotel was taken over by Scott Hunter, probably the younger brother of Thomas. Scott ran the hotel with his wife Janet Hutcheson until his death in 1873.

The business remained in the Hunter family until the early 1900s when the hotel changed ownership and use. It became a corner shop and post office run by the Crozier family.  

Common field-names occur many times and are self-explanatory with logical names referring to the location on the farm or a notable feature. Some field-names are unique and are part of local tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. Cuddlecosy is a name given both to a field and the adjacent lane that is located on a circular route from Borgue village. With numerous gorsey knolls and a convenient distance from the village it is a place where courting couples could rest awhile away from prying eyes!

During the “Killing Times” some Covenanters captured by troops were prisoned, tried and banished before making the return journey to Scotland. The legacy of Gilbert Milroy can be seen in the remains of the mill at Kirkcowan with the remarkable story of his banishment to Jamaica and return to his family preserved in a book written by Robert Wodrow.

GILBERT MILROY

We are fortunate that Gilbert Milroy was able to tell his story to Robert Wodrow who recorded it in The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution first published in 1722.

Gilbert Milroy, or McIlraith, was a Presbyterian who lived in the fermtoun of Kirkcalla in the parish of Penninghame. Hiding in the moors to avoid persecution he was captured in 1685, tortured and questioned before being marched to Edinburgh. Janet, his wife, was thrown out of her house and also tortured and questioned. She appealed to her local minister to confirm her husband’s good character but the sealed letter that she delivered to the court stated that he was a persistent rebel. Sentenced to have his ears cut off and 10 years banishment to Jamaica Gilbert was considered so close to death by the surgeon who visited the prison that his ears were not removed. He endured a difficult voyage to Jamaica where he was indentured to a plantation. Gilbert was initially beaten and badly treated before eventually becoming a slave overseer and later survived attacks by the plantation slaves. In 1690 he returned to Scotland and his family and was reported by Wodrow as being a useful member of the church at Kirkcowan.

Paples is a field name recorded in a list of old names collected by a local farmer about 20 years ago. It appears to relate to the same location as the field now known as Gypsy Fields which incorporates a strip called Gypsy’s Loaning and is a place where travelling folk used to park up every summer.

The name Paples may preserve the word papil from the Brittonic language. It has its roots in the Latin word pāpiliō meaning butterfly and was adopted as a word for a tent or a wide range of temporary buildings. This word is found in several place-names in southern Scotland and usually refers to temporary bothies used for summer grazing but could be a name given to a stopping place for travellers.

Other field names that may relate to temporary dwelling places include:

The Dalarai from the Gaelic dail-àirighe meaning shieling, camping field.

Laganorie from the Gaelic lagan na h-àirighe meaning hollow of the shieling, seasonal camping-place.

During the “Killing Times” some Covenanters were captured by troops, sent to prison, tried and then banished to the Americas. Robert MacLellan was banished but returned to Scotland and this is his remarkable story.

ROBERT MACLELLAN

Robert MacLellan of Barmagachan in the parish of Borgue (house pictured) was a passionate Covenanter. He took part in the Pentland Rising and fled to England only returning to his home after four years away. He later took part in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge and again escaped to England. In 1684 he was captured, imprisoned and eventually sentenced to be banished to America as an indentured prisoner. Accompanied by three of his sons he sailed on the Henry and Francis from Leith in September 1685 and after a difficult voyage they arrived at Perth Amboy, New Jersey in December. Many died on the journey and Robert was so ill he had to be carried off the ship. They protested against their banishment and the prisoners were pardoned. He purchased land at Woodbridge and remained there until June 1689 when, hearing news that it was safe to return, he set out for Scotland with one of his sons.

They made good time on the return journey but then their fortunes changed for the worse. As the ship approached England it was engaged by a French man-o-war and they were taken as prisoners. First held in a prison in Nantes they were then made to walk to Toulon and on the way a guard lashed Robert in the face resulting in him losing his eye. After the six-week march they were then held in a prison ship where they remained for many months, his 12 year old son looking after him until they were released. Heading home again on a ship bound for Amsterdam a storm blew up and forced the ship to land in Ireland where they were once again taken prisoner. Robert was badly treated and fell ill again before they sailed to Dublin and eventually back to Scotland to their home, Barmagachan in Borgue. Robert appears to have died in the early 1690s soon after his return. Barmagachan was inherited by a son, also Robert, before being sold in the early 1700s.

The first of 3 short videos of a talk given to Kirkcudbright History Society has been released. They explain how field-names were gathered, recorded and analysed. 

The seeds of the Borgue Field Name project were sown by a PLACE in the Biosphere talk about Borgue by historian Professor Ted Cowan and place name enthusiast Michael Ansell. Local realisation that the local countryside was evolving as farms are merged and fields are changed provided the inspiration for the project. A plan was hatched by people living locally to gather field-names, map and analysis meanings and share the information to a wider audience.

Over 50 farmers, landowners and farm workers were questioned and were keen to find out more about the names of fields.  More than 800 fields have been mapped and, because some field have had several name changes, nearly 1,000 names have been recorded. 

The names collected can be interrogated on an interactive map on the Borgue website;

The Southern Uplands are mostly made up of a brittle grey sandstone that has been eroded away to make rounded hill tops. The stone can be seen exposed in river beds, on hill top cairns and drystone dykes.

In contrast to the amazingly diverse geology found in the Ballantrae complex the hills to the south of the Stinchar Valley are made up of tough sedimentary rock formed about 440 million years ago. Fine particles settled on the bottom of a deep ocean in thin layers that were sometimes covered by thick layers of sediment deposited by underwater avalanches triggered by earthquakes. The ocean closed as two continents collided, uniting lands that we now call Scotland and England. As the ocean floor was forced under the Scottish continent some of it was scraped off, folded and stacked vertically together to form the Southern Uplands.

A weird type of animal life called graptolites lived in the ocean. When they died, they sank down to the layers of sludgy mud and were preserved as fossils that look like ancient writing scratched into the rock. The graptolites evolved into different shapes and geologists studying the rocks noticed that different fossils could be used to identify different periods of geological time.

Over 100 years ago Charles Lapworth spent many years studying graptolite fossils and devised a theory that explained how the Southern Uplands were created. Although his ideas took time to be accepted his conclusions about the order of events that formed the rocks are still undisputed.

The Borgue Field Name project has successfully combined traditional survey and research techniques with modern media to help tell the story of their place and create resources for future generations to use.

Over 50 farmers, landowners and farm workers were questioned and were keen to find out more about the names of fields.  More than 800 fields have been mapped and, because some fields have had several name changes, nearly 1,000 names have been recorded. We were fortunate to have two local place name and linguistic experts who could analyse the information and the information is now accessible through an interactive map on the Borgue website; https://www.borgue.org/borguemap/

The countryside we see today is largely the result of agricultural improvements that started in the 1700s and so the fields and their names where formed about the time Scots or English was spoken. However, languages spoken at an earlier time have often loaned words used in field names. The most common loan words are from Gaelic and they often refer to topographical descriptions.

DRUM

Drum meaning ridge is very common in Galloway place names and is derived from Gaelic druim meaning the back of an animal. In field names it was probably adopted by Scots speakers to identify long rounded landforms common in the Borgue landscape. These smooth elongated mounds are evidence of deposits laid down during an ice age when the land was plastered with a layer of glacially transported debris in the form of boulder clay, gravel and sand.

There are several fields simply named Drum and others that incorporate the word drum including:

During the “Killing Times” some Covenanters who were captured by troops were sent to prison, tried and then banished to the Americas. A small number of those banished returned to Scotland after the persecution ended and the acceptance of Scottish Presbyterianism with the accession of King William II of Scotland in 1688. The remarkable stories of those who were banished only to return to south west Scotland include Gilbert Milroy (Kirkcowan), Robert McLellan (Borgue) and John Campbell (Barr).

COVENANTERS – A SHORT SUMMARY

The Covenanters were those who confirmed their opposition to the interference by the Stuart Kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland by signing a National Covenant in 1638. In the early years it was a popular cause but after 40 years support had waned. Reduced to a strong hold of radicals based in south west Scotland they issued a declaration in 1680 effectively waging war on the Stuart King. The King responded by sending troops to the area with the intention of removing the small number of trouble makers. The troops were authorised to carry out field executions of those caught in arms or those who refused to swear loyalty to the King and renounce the Covenant. This led to many injustices as rural inhabitants from the Presbyterian community were executed and although it took place over a relatively short period in the mid-1680s the severe treatment was bitterly resented. This period has since come to dominate the history of the Covenanters and is known as the “Killing Times” and those who were executed where later celebrated as martyrs to the cause.

JOHN CAMPBELL

John Campbell was banished to America and returned to Barr. Much that is known about him is recorded on his headstone in Barr graveyard although the dates of the banishment and return may be inaccurate.

The headstone is difficult to decipher but appears to read:

HERE LYS

THE CORPS OF JOHN

CAMPBELL  WHO  UAS  BAN

ISHED  FROM  WALUOOD TO

AMERICA  FOR  CHRISTS  CAUSE

IN83 BUT BY PROVIDENCE HE RETU

RND IN 85 & DYED  AUGUST  1721

AGED 72    BE FAITHFULL UNTO

DEATH & THOU SHALT HAVE A

CROWN OF LIFE / ALSO MARY &

JAMES CAMPBELL'S CHILDREN