"DRYFESDALE, (or Drysdale), a parish in the district of Annandale, in the county of Dumfries, Scotland. The name is derived from the river Dryfe (being anciently applied to the basin of that stream), and is pronounced Drysdale. The parish is bounded by Applegarth, Hutton, Tundergarth, St. Mungo, Dalton, and Lochmaben. It has an extreme length of 7½ with an extreme breadth of 5 miles. The north-eastern portion is an assemblage of verdant hills partly cultivated and partly devoted to pasture. The western and southern parts of the parish are for the most part flat and highly cultivated. Along the banks of the Dryfe and the Annan there are tracts of deep fertile loam. The highest elevation is White Woollen or White Wooen, a hill rising 732 feet above the sea, and commanding a most extensive and beautiful prospect on all sides. At Dryfe Sands, a locality near the junction of the Dryfe and the Annan, the Maxwells were routed with great slaughter by the Johnstones on the 7th December, 1593. Various remains of towers, and of British and Roman camps or forts, exist in the parish. In the end of the 1st century, Corbredus Galdus, King of the Scots, encountered the army of Julius Agricola here. There are traces of the Roman road which traversed Dryfesdale. The Caledonian railway, and the road from Glasgow to London, intersect the parish from N. to S.; also the Dryfesdale. Lochmaben and Lockerbie railway from E. to W. This parish is in the presbytery of Lochmaben and synod of Dumfries, and in the patronage of the crown. The minister has a stipend of nearly £200. The parish church is situated in Lockerby, where also there is a Free church and an United Presbyterian church. The ancient parochial church, together with a part of the churchyard, were swept away by the Dryfe in 1670."
[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]
