Anwoth, a coast parish of SW Kirkcudbrightshire, with the Fleet Street suburb of its post-town Gatehouse in the E, and Dromore station in the N, on the Portpatrick branch of the Caledonian, 39 miles WSW of Dumfries. It is bounded W and N by Kirkmabreck, E by Girthon, SE by Fleet Bay, and S by Wigtown Bay; its length from N to S is 7¼ miles; its breadth varies between 1½ and 4½ miles; and its area is 12,861¼ acres, of which 1036¾ are foreshore and 33¾ water. The whole of the eastern border is traced by the river Fleet; and Skyreburn, rising upon Meikle Bennan, follows the upper portion of the western border till, joined by Cauldside Burn, it strikes south-south-eastward through the interior, and, traversing a lovely wooded glen, enters Fleet Bay after a course of 3¾ miles. Its sudden and violent freshets have given rise to the local proverb of ` a Skyreburn warning, ' of which ` Scarborough warning ' in Harington's Ariosto (1591) is thought to be a corruption. The seaboard, though generally rocky, is low except at Kirkclaugh in the W, where a steep and rocky promontory rises to over 100 feet; and inland, too, the highest points are near or upon the western border, viz., from N to S Meikle Bennan (1100 feet), Stey Fell (1000), Cairnharrow (1497), Ben John (1150), and Barholm Hill (1163), eastward of which rise Kenlum Hill (900), Ardwall Hill (600), and Trusty's Hill (225). Underlying a fertile rock - soil, the formation is chiefly Silurian; a vein of lead, extending across the parish, and including small quantities of zinc and copper, was formerly worked on the estate of Rusco. Only about one-third of the entire surface is arable, much of the land along and to some distance from the Fleet being under wood; at Ardwall still stands the splendid beech that in 1800 was saved from the woodman by Campbell's Beech Tree's Petition. Behind Ornockenoch is a rocking-stone, 1 ton in weight; and prehistoric antiquities are two cairns and `Druidical ' circles, a vitrified fort and a broad flat stone inscribed with so-called Runic characters on Trusty's Hill, the Moat of Kirkclaugh, and near it a thin, flat obelisk, 5¼ feet high, with a rude cross carved upon either side. Rusco Castle, a seat of the Gordons of Lochinvar, is a square tower, crowning a knoll in the Vale of Fleet, 3 miles NNW of Gatehouse, and habitable, though dating from the 15th century. Cardoness Castle, also upon the Fleet, 1 mile SSW of Gatehouse, is a similar but roofless tower, last tenanted by Sir Godfrey M`Culloch, who in 1697 was beheaded at Edinburgh for the murder of William Gordon at Bush o' Bield (Chambers' Domestic Annals, ii. 321,322, and iii. 174-176). The latter, another baronial mansion (demolished in 1827), was long the residence of Samuel Rutherford (1600-61), the eminent Covenanting minister of Anwoth, who was visited here by Archbishop Usher, and two of whose ` Witnesses ' are standing yet-the three large stones that he reared as a protest against Sabbath football playing. His church (1626) is an ivy-clad ruin, with a stone in its graveyard to John Bell of Whyteside, ` barbarously shot to death on Kirkconnel Moor for adherence to the Covenants ' in 1685; and to Rutherford's own memory was erected in 1842 upon a hill on Boreland farm a granite obelisk, 56 feet high, which, struck by lightning in 1847, was rebuilt in 1851. Ardwall, Cardoness House (Sir William Maxwell, third Bart.), and Kirkclaugh are the chief mansions; and 3 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 4 of between £100 and £500,2 of between £50 and £100, and 4 of between £20 and £50. Anwoth is in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright and synod of Galloway; the minister's income is £311. The present church (1826) stands 1¾ mile W by S of Gatehouse, and contains 400 sittings. At Fleet Street, too, are the U.P. church of Gatehouse and boys' and girls' schools, which had respectively an average attendance of 81 and 91, and grants of £79, 4s. and £90, 8s. in 1879, when Laggan school was closed, but when that of Skyreburn had an attendance of 33 and a grant of £39, 4s. Valuation (1881) £6797, 3s. 6d. Pop. (1831) 830, (1861) 899, (1871) 827, (1881) 728. See pp. 99-109 of Harper's Rambles in Galloway (Edinb. 1876).—Ord. Sur., shs. 4, 5, 1857.
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