The Machars

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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Machars (Celt. machair, ` a plain '), one of the three districts of Wigtownshire, being the broad-based, triangular peninsula between Wigtown and Luce Bays. It has ill-defined boundaries, but it may be viewed either as comprehending the parishes of Whithorn, Glasserton, Sorbie, Kirkinner, and most of Mochrum, amounting to 100 square miles, or as comprehending also the rest of Mochrum and parts of Old -Luce, Kirkcowan, and Penninghame, amounting, with these additions, to nearly 150 square miles. Its surface, as implied in its name, is prevailingly low and flat, yet has considerable diversities, and will be noticed in our article on Wigtownshire.

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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