River Sark

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.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry

Sark, a small river in the extreme SE of Dumfriesshire. It is formed by the confluence of Woodside or All for nought Burn, tracing the northern boundary of Half Morton, and Hall Burn, out of Canonbie; and it winds 11¼ miles in a southerly and a south-south-westerly direction to the head of the Solway Firth. For the first 3¾ miles it divides Half-Morton from Canonbie; and afterwards, over a distance of 7½ miles, it divides Half Morton and Gretna from Cumberland. Its sources lie among the lower declivities of the Eskdale Hills; but by far the greater part of its course is across either a low and beautiful plain or along the skirts of the Solway Moss. It yields fair trout-fishing; but during a comparatively dry summer it almost ceases to exist. —Ord. Sur., shs. 10, 6, 1864-63.

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