KIRKPATRICK IRONGRAY, Kirkcudbrightshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"KIRKPATRICK IRONGRAY, a parish in county Kirkcudbright, Scotland, 5 miles N.W. of Dumfries. It is 9 miles in length by 3 in breadth, and contains the village of Shawhead. The surface extends along the southern bank of the river Nith, and is intersected by the Cluden. The mountain termed the Bishop's Forest occupies the N.W. corner of the parish. It rises to a considerable height, is skirted with wood, and cultivated to its very summit. A great part of the S.W. of the parish is occupied by moorland and pasture, the rest is in tillage. Near the river Cairn is the Rowting Bridge, of one arch, so called from the noise of the waterfall above it. The living is in the presbytery and synod of Dumfries. The minister's stipend is £254. The church is a modern structure. There is a Free church, also two parochial schools. There were formerly two chapels, and the cemetery attached to one of them still remains. Helen Walker, the original of Sir Walter's Scott's "Jeanie Deans," was born here. John Welsh, the great-grandson of Knox, and minister of this parish, suffered ejectment in 1662."

"SHAWHEAD, a village in the parish of Kirkpatrick-Irongray, county Kirkcudbright, Scotland, 6 miles W. of Dumfries."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]