The picturesque ruins of Carlaverock Castle—the “Ellangowan” of Guy Mannering—are 8 m. to the south. Above the entrance are the arms of the Maxwells, earls of Nithsdale, to whose descendant, the duchess of Norfolk, it belongs. The castle, which is in an excellent state of preservation, is built of red sandstone, on the site of a fortress supposed to have been erected in the 6th century, of which nothing now remains. In plan it is a triangle, protected by a double moat, and has round towers at the angles. Part of the present structure is believed to date from 1220 and once sheltered William Wallace. It withstood Edward I.’s siege in 1300 for two days, although garrisoned by only sixty men. In the troublous times that followed it often changed hands. In 1570 it fell into disrepair, but was restored, and in 1641 was besieged for the last time by the Covenanters.
A mile and a half to the north-west of Dumfries lies Lincluden Abbey, “an old ruin,” says Burns, “in a sweet situation at the confluence of the Cluden and the Nith.” Originally the abbey was a convent, founded in the 12th century, but converted two centuries later into a collegiate church by Archibald, earl of Douglas. The remains of the choir and south transept disclose rich work of the Decorated style.
DUMFRIESSHIRE, a border county of Scotland, bounded S. by the Solway Firth, S.E. by Cumberland, E. by Roxburghshire, N. by the shires of Lanark, Peebles and Selkirk, and W. by Ayrshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. Its area is 686,302 acres or 1072 sq. m. The coast line measures 21 m. The county slopes very gradually from the mountainous districts in the north down to the sea, lofty hills alternating in parts with stretches of tableland or rich fertile holms. At various points within a few miles of the Solway are tracts of moss land, like Craigs Moss, Lochar Moss and Longbridge Moor in the west, and Nutberry Moss in the east, all once under water, but now largely reclaimed. The principal mountains occur near the northern boundaries, the highest being White Coomb (2695 ft.), Hart Fell (2651), Saddle Yoke (2412), Swatte Fell (2389), Lowther Hills (2377), Queensberry (2285), which gives his secondary title to the duke of Buccleuch and the title of marquess to a branch of the house of Douglas, and Ettrick Pen (2269). The three longest rivers are the Nith, the Annan and the Esk, the basins of which form the great dales by which the county is cleft from north to south—Nithsdale, Annandale and Eskdale. From the point where it enters Dumfriesshire, 16 m. from its source near Enoch Hill in Ayrshire, the course of the Nith is mainly south-easterly till it enters the Solway, a few miles below Dumfries. Its total length is 65 m., and its chief affluents are, on the right, the Kello, Euchan, Scar, Cluden and Cargen, and, on the left, the Crawick, Carron and Campie. The Annan rises near the Devil’s Beef Tub, a remarkable chasm in the far north, and after flowing about 40 m., mainly in a southerly course, it enters the Solway at Barnkirk headland. It receives, on the right, the Kinnel (reinforced by the Ae), and, on the left, the Moffat, the Dryfe and the Milk. From the confluence of the White Esk (rising near Ettrick Pen) and the Black Esk (rising near Jock’s Shoulder, 1754 ft.) the Esk flows in a gradually south-easterly direction till it crosses the Border, whence it sweeps to the S.W. through the extreme north-western territory of Cumberland and falls into the Solway. Of its total course of 42 m., 12 belong to the White Esk, 20 are of the Esk proper on Scottish soil and 10 are of the stream in its English course. On the right the Wauchope is the chief affluent, and on the left it receives the Megget, Ewes, Tarras and Line—the last being an English tributary. Other rivers are the Lochar (18 m.), the Kirtle (17) and the Sark (12), all flowing into the Solway. For one mile of its course the Esk, and for 7 m. of its course the Sark, form the boundaries between Dumfriesshire and Cumberland. Loch Skene in the north (1750 ft. above the sea), the group of lochs around Lochmaben, and Loch Urr in the west, only part of which belongs to Dumfriesshire, are the principal lakes. There are few glens so named in the shire, but the passes of Dalveen, Enterkin and Menock, leading up from Nithsdale to the Lowther and other hills, yield to few glens in Scotland in the wild grandeur of their scenery. For part of the way Enterkin Pass runs between mountains rising sheer from the burn to a height of nearly 2000 ft. Loch Skene finds an outlet in Tail Burn, the water of which at a short distance from the lake leaps from a height of 200 ft. in a fine waterfall, known as the Grey Mare’s Tail. A much smaller but picturesque fall of the same name, also known as Crichope Linn, occurs on the Crichope near Thornhill. Mineral waters are found at Moffat, Hartfell Spa, some three miles farther north, Closeburn and Brow on the Solway.
Geology.—The greater portion of the county of Dumfries belongs to the Silurian tableland of the south of Scotland which contains representatives of all the divisions of that system from the Arenig to the Ludlow rocks. By far the largest area is occupied by strata of Tarannon and Llandovery age which cover a belt of country from 20 to 25 m. across from Drumlanrig Castle in the north to Torthorwald in the south. Consisting of massive grits, sometimes conglomeratic, greywackes, flags and shales, these beds are repeated by innumerable folds frequently inverted, striking N.E. and S.W. and usually dipping towards the N.W. In the midst of this belt there are lenticular bands of older strata of Arenig, Llandeilo, Caradoc and Llandovery age composed of fine sediments such as cherts, black and grey shales, white clays and flags, which come to the surface along anticlinal folds and yield abundant graptolites characteristic of these divisions. These black shale bands are typically developed in Moffatdale, indeed the three typical sections chosen by Professor Lapworth to illustrate his three great groups—(1) the Glenkill shales (Upper Llandeilo), (2) the Hartfell shales (Caradoc), (3) Birkhill shales (Lower Llandovery)—occur respectively in the Glenkill Burn north of Kirkmichael, on Hartfell and in Dobbs Linn near St Mary’s Loch in the basin of the river Annan. In the extreme N.W. of the county between Drumlanrig Castle and Dalveen Pass in the S. and the Spango and Kello Waters on the N., there is a broad development of Arenig, Llandeilo and Caradoc strata, represented by Radiolarian cherts, black shales, grits, conglomerates, greywackes and shales which rise from underneath the central Tarannon belt and are repeated by innumerable folds. In the cores of the arches of Arenig cherts there are diabase lavas, tuffs and agglomerates which are typically represented on Bail Hill E. of Kirkconnel. Along the southern margin of the Tarannon belt, the Wenlock and Ludlow rocks follow in normal order, the boundary between the two being defined by a line extending from the head of the Ewes Water in Eskdale, S.W. by Lockerbie to Mouswald. These consist of greywackes, flags and shales with bands of dark graptolite shales, the finer sediments being often well cleaved. They are likewise repeated by inverted folds, the axial planes being usually inclined to the S.E. The Silurian tableland in the N.W. of the county is pierced by intrusive igneous rocks in the form of dikes and bosses, which are regarded as of Lower Old Red Sandstone age. Of these, the granite mass of Spango Water, N.E. of Kirkconnel, is an excellent example. Along the N.W. margin of the county, on the N. side of the fault bounding the Silurian tableland, the Lower Old Red Sandstone occurs, where it consists of sandstones and conglomerates associated with contemporaneous volcanic rocks. The Upper Old Red Sandstone forms a narrow strip on the south side of the Silurian tableland, resting unconformably on the Silurian rocks and passing upwards into the Carboniferous formation. It stretches from the county boundary E. of the Ewes Water, S.W. by Langholm to Birrenswark. Along this line these Upper Red sandstones and shales are overlaid by a thin zone of volcanic rocks which point to contemporaneous volcanic action in this region at the beginning of the Carboniferous period. Some of the vents from which these igneous materials may have been discharged are found along the watershed between Liddesdale and Teviotdale in Roxburghshire. The strata of Carboniferous age are found in three areas: (1) between Sanquhar and Kirkconnel, (2) at Closeburn near Thornhill, (3) in the district between Liddesdale and Ruthwell. In the first two instances (Sanquhar and Thornhill) the Carboniferous sediments lie in hollows worn out of the old Silurian tableland. In the Sanquhar basin the strata belong to the Coal Measures, and include several valuable coal-seams which are probably the southern prolongations of the members of this division in Ayrshire. At the S.E. limit of the Sanquhar Coalfield there are patches of the Carboniferous Limestone series, but towards the N. these are overlapped by the Coal Measures which thus rest directly on the Silurian platform. At Closeburn and Barjarg there are beds of marine limestone, associated with sandstones and shales which probably represent marine bands in the Carboniferous Limestone series. The most important development of Carboniferous strata occurs between Liddesdale and Ruthwell. In the valleys of the Liddel and the Esk the following zones are represented which are given in ascending order: (1) The Whita Sandstone, (2) the Cementstone group, (3) the Fell Sandstones, (4) the Glencartholm volcanic group, (5) Marine limestone group with Coal seams, (6) Millstone Grit, (7) Rowanburn coal group, (8) Byreburn coal group, (9) Red Sandstones of Canonbie yielding plants characteristic of the Upper Coal Measures. The coal-seams of the Rowanburn field have been chiefly wrought, and in view of their exhaustion bores have been sunk to prove the coals
