Auchencairn

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Auchencairn, a village and a quoad sacra parish in the civil parish of Rerwick, Kirkcudbrightshire. The village is pleasantly situated at the NW angle of a bay of its own name, about 10 miles E of Kirkcudbright, 8 SSE of Castle-Douglas, and 7½ SSW of Dalbeattie, with which last station it communicates twice a week by coach. With good sea-bathing, it is a rising little place, containing an Established church (1856), a Free church, two hotels, gas-works, a post office under Castle-Donglas, with money order and savings' bank departments, and a school which in 1879 had an average attendance of 159 children, and a grant of £139,2s. 6d. Just to the S, on gronud that rises from the shore, stands Auchencairn House (J. G. Mackie, Esq.), a good red freestone mansion, with tasteful grounds and a fine collection of modern British paintings; and to the S again of this is Auchencairn Moss. The parish is in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright and synod of Galloway; its minister's stipend is £120. Pop. of village (1861) 390, (1871) 474, (1881) 441; of quoad sacra parish (1871) 1103, (1881) 1037.

Auchencairn Bay runs 2¼ miles north-westward from the Solway Firth (or 2¾, reckoning its right hand prolongation, Orchardton Bay), and has an average breadth of 1¼ mile. Its entrance is guarded by Almorness Point, 100 feet high, on the right; on the left by Balcary Point (200 feet); and half-way across it lies the green isle of Hestan (3 furlongs long, 1½ wide, and 100 feet high), giving its waters a land-locked, lake-like appearance. At low tide the bay presents an unbroken bed of smooth sand, so dry and firm that horse-races have been run upon it.—Ord. Sur., sh. 5,1857.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer