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The term "Galloway" is used when Kirkcudbrightshire and its western neighbour Wigtownshire are described together. The county is called "The Stewartry" (from its formal title, the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright) by its inhabitants and forms the Stewartry committee area of Dumfries and Galloway Council, represented by eight Stewartry councillors. Local administration of the district today is overseen by the Stewartry Area Manager, based in the county town of Kirkcudbright. Kirkcudbrightshire continues to be used administratively for property registration. References to past censuses, civil registration (or vital statistics records) prior to 1975, and the Old Parish Registers (pre 1855) always quote "Kirkcudbrightshire" in preference to any other title. Kirkcudbrightshire is bounded on the north and north-west by Ayrshire, on the west and southwest by Wigtownshire, on the south and southeast by the Irish Sea and the Solway Firth, and on the east and northeast by Dumfriesshire. It included the small islands of Hestan and Little Ross. It had an area of 897.6 sq. miles (2,323km2). Today the economy is dependent on agriculture and tourism. The land is hilly and in parts mountainous. Rainfall is higher than the British average. As a result the county is better suited to growing grass than grain crops. Galloway cattle, a beef breed, is native to the region.
[edit] History
[edit] Early historyThe country west of the Nith was originally peopled by a tribe of Celts called Novantae, who long retained their independence. After Gnaeus Julius Agricola's invasion in 79 AD, the country nominally formed part of the Roman province of Britannia, but the evidence is against there ever having been a prolonged effective Roman occupation. There was a Roman temporary marching camp at Shawhead, Irongray Parish. After the retreat of the Romans, the fate of the Novantae is unknown. By the 6th century, Galloway was part of the Brythonic kingdom of Strathclyde. During the ninth century, the region was part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. A hoard that has been attributed to either a Northumbrian metal-worker, or a Viking campaigner, was deposited near Talnotrie c.875-900. [edit] 11th, 12th, and 13th centuriesDuring the next two hundred years the country had no rest from Danish and Saxon incursions and the continual lawlessness of the Scandinavian rovers. When Malcolm Canmore defeated and slew Macbeth in 1057 he married the dead king's relative Ingibiorg, a Pictish princess, (the view that there were Picts in Galloway in historical times can not be wholly rejected) an event which marked the beginning of the decay of Norse influence. The Galloway chiefs hesitated for a time whether to throw in their lot with the Northumbrians or with Malcolm; but language, race and the situation of their country at length induced them to become lieges of the Scottish king. [edit] 14th and 15th centuriesIn 1308 the district was cleared of the English and brought under allegiance to the king, when the lordship of Galloway was given to Edward Bruce. In 1372 Archibald the Grim, a natural son of Sir James Douglas "the Good", became Lord of Galloway and received in perpetual fee the Crown lands between the Nith and the Cree. He appointed a steward to collect his revenues and administer justice, and thus arose the designation of the "Stewartry of Kirkcudbright". In 1455 Threave Castle, the most important fortress in Galloway, which Archibald the Grim had built on the Dee immediately to the west of the modern town of Castle Douglas, was reduced and converted into a royal keep. [edit] 16th and 17th centuriesAs the Douglases went down the Maxwells rose, and the debatable land on the south-east of Dumfriesshire was for generations the scene of strife and raid, not only between the two nations but also among the leading families, of whom the Maxwells, Johnstones and Armstrongs were always conspicuous. After the Battle of Solway Moss (1542) the shires of Kirkcudbright and Dumfries fell under English rule for a short period. The treaty of Norham (24 March 1550) established a truce between the nations for ten years; and in 1552, the Wardens of the Marches consenting, the debatable land ceased to be matter for debate, the parish of Canonbie being annexed to Dumfriesshire, that of Kirkandrews to Cumberland. [edit] 18th centuryMcCulloch and Gordon families were of Cardoness Castle, Anwoth Parish and Rev. Rutherford was minister of Anwoth. After the union (1707) things mended slowly but surely, curious evidence of growing commercial prosperity being the enormous extent to which smuggling was carried on. No coast could serve the "free traders" better than the shores of Kirkcudbright, and the contraband trade flourished until the 19th century. The Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 elicited small sympathy from the inhabitants of the shire. In the 1760s a military road was constructed from Bridge of Sark, near Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway to Portpatrick by Major William Caulfeild. [edit] 19th centuryThe Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 established a uniform system of county councils in Scotland and realigned the boundaries of many of Scotland's counties. Subsequently, Kirkcudbright County Council was created in 1890. Kirkcudbright was based at County Buildings, 121 and 123 High Street, Kirkcudbright. The county council was abolished and replaced by the new Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council in 1975. [edit] Research Tips
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[edit] Notes for Kirkcudbrightshire
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