[From Proc IoMNH&ASoc vol 3]

KIRKCUDBRIGHT IN MANX HISTORY.

15th January, 1927.

Of all the neighbouring lands, Scotland approaches our own shores most nearly. Burrow Head is less than 20 miles trom the Point of Ayre, and from all our northern and western coasts the Mull of Galloway is one of the most conspicuous objects. Yet, with Galloway there is now very little direct intercourse, an excursion at irregular intervals in summer, a few calls of trading vessels from or to a district almost without industries. It was not always so. Inhabited by a kindred race, ruled by chiefs often closely connected with our own, a near association between Mann and the South-west corner of Scotland is frequently recorded in our annals. The Celtic language spoken in Galloway until, it is said, the sixteenth century, has left no literary remains; but the personal and place-names show that it must have been nearly identical with Manx. Common also to Mann and Galloway was the Norse colonization, which has also left traces in the naming of their scenery. Apparently, however, the Scandinavian infusion was weaker on the Scottish side.

In the transactions of our Society we have heard, from time to time, of Whithorn and its great pilgrimage Priory, which had lands in Mann. The present paper deals with the Manx Associations of another Scottish centre.

Kirkcudbright is not so near the Island as Whithorn, the white houses of whose port can, in clear weather, be seen from our northern hills, yet the light of the Ross at the entrance to the estuary of the Dee is visible from Ramsey at night, and by day the rocky heights near by are recognizable by those familiar with the features of the district.

The old borough of Kirkcudbright is beautifully situated on its tidal river, overlooked by wooded hills. Its curiously angled High Street was the only thoroughfare of the ancient town; at either end there were gates in the circuit of its walls, one leading to the river, the other to the open country on the east. Nothing remains of the walls; to the High Street have been added more regular thoroughfares, but it is still — even from a Manx point of view, a small place. The ruins of its (latest) castle; its high county buildings, and its churches, give it a dignified appearance, especially as approached from the north.

In the middle of the twelfth century there came into prominence a Gallovidian chieftain, the first of a family which flourished for a century as Lords of Galloway, and were sometimes even entitled kings. Nothing is known of the parentage of Fergus, but his name appears to show that he was a native Celt. Though at the Battle of the Standard, im 1138, his subjects were looked upon as savages, Fergus had an opportunity of sharing in such culture as was then available in England, for he spent some time at the Court of Henry I and married a daughter of that King, her sister being married to Alexander I of Scotland. Olaf I of Mann and the Isles wedded a daughter of Fergus, whose name in the Chronicle assumed the Latinized form of Affrica.

In spite of the savagery of the age, it was a time of religious revival and of the re-organization of the Church. Fergus was a great church and abbey builder. To him was due the foundation or re-foundation of Whithorn Priory, of Soulseat, of the Priory of St. Mary's Isle on the beautiful peninsula close to Kirkcudbright, and perhaps of the beautiful Abbey of Dundrennan, a few miles distant.

It is interesting to find his son-in-law following with the gift to Furness Abbey by which Rushen Abbey took its place on an old Celtic foundation. Olaf's brother and predecessor, smitten with remorse for his crimes, had died as a pilgrim to Palestine.

It is at this time that the strange figure of Bishop Hamund or Wymund, of whom Canon Quine has given us so interesting and suggestive an account, forms another link with Galloway, but the scene of his adventure lies in the neighbouring Wigtownshire.

When Olaf I was murdered at Ramsey, his assassins followed up their deed by an unsuccessful invasion of Galloway, and, on their return, massacred the Gallovidians in the Isle, which looks as if the Queen had rendered herself unpopular by intruding her countrymen on Mann.

The road from Kirkcudbright to Castle Douglas (by Whinnyliggat), rising past the ancient churchyard of St. Cuthbert's, enters a wooded ravine, which Opens on a shallow depression, about a mile from the town. This is the site of the now drained Loch Fergus, and in it stands out a green knoll, partly covered by trees, and with slight trace of a parapet and a building within. The mound is called ' Palace Isle,' and tradition makes it the seat of Fergus. It was probably the early home of the Queen of Mann, and here may also have dwelt subsequent rulers of the same family, who were closely associated with our kings. A leading feature in the history of Reginald I, 'the usurper,' is his alliance with Alan Lord of Galloway during his long and tragic feud with his brother Olaf. In 1225 Reginald and Alan set out with a Manx force for the Isle, to take from Olaf that part of the kingdom which had been assigned to him. The plan failed, for the Manxmen could not be induced to fight against Olaf.

About 1226, Reginald, having by a pretence obtained 100 marks from his subjects, went to the 'Court' of Alan, and gave his daughter to the (illegitimate) son of the latter in marriage. This, according to our Chronicler, intensely angered the Manx, and cost him, for the time, his kingdom. In 1228, with Alan, and Thomas, Earl of Athole (Alan's brother), he invaded Mann, wasted all the South, spoiled the churches, and the allies 'killed every man they were able to capture.' Then Alan returned with his men to Galloway, but left 'bailiffs,' who were to render to him (not Reginald) the tribute of the country. Olaf, however, soon returned and resumed rule, and the dispersed Manx were re-settled in their habitations.

Alan died in 1234, and with him ended the line of the native lords or kings. He had been Constable of Scotland and the owner of great possesions in England as well as Scotland. As an English baron he had taken part in the movement which forced Magna Charta from King John.

Toward the end of the same century, probably, there was built at Kirkcudbright a greater castle. Near the bank of the estuary, a few hundred yards from the town, a green mound of considerable extent was known as Castledykes. To recent excavation this has revealed the foundations of formidable towers and walls, the remains of a castle comparable to Castle Rushen. Very little is known of its history. In 1509, when it had, perhaps, commenced to be abandoned or ruinous, it was handed over to the town, with some adjoining land.

It is to the beginning of the same century, about 1500 or 1507, that is to be attributed the exploit of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, commemorated in the 'Traditionary Ballad'(1) :—

Er Albanee chooilleen eh hene,
As hie eh noon gys Keeill-Choobragh,
As ren eh lheid y craghtys thieyn,
Dy vel paart ayn foast gyn mullagh.
Nagh bwaagh shen dasyn dooinney aeg
Dy goaill chooilleen by-vooar jeh gaue,
Roish haink rieau er e ghob faasaag,
Ase gheiney chur lesh ass dy slane?

A strong note of enmity to the Scots runs through early Manx literature.

On Scotchmen he revenged himself,
He went over to Kirkcudbright,
And made such havoc of houses
That some of them are yet unroofed.
Was not that pretty in such a young man,
To take revenge regardless of danger,
Before ever a beard came on his mouth,
And to carry his men safe home with him?

Does this mean that the Manx sacked a walled town which, forty years after, was able to beat off an English army? Perhaps Stanley only raided the neighbouring country outside. Perhaps the walls, which are shown in a curious plan of this century preserved in the British Museum, had not yet been built. Although there were at the time of the Manx invasion, or soon after, somewhat strained relations between England and Scotland, it was not until 1513 that war was declared — the war which so disastrously culminated at Flodden. In my reading of Galloway literature I do not find any confirmation of the story —the allusions to it seem merely taken from the ballad through the history of Train, himself a Gallovidian. One would also expect to find the attack mentioned among the grievances on which James IV founded his declaration of war against England.(2) At the same time, a contemporary can hardly have based his eulogies on his hero on an exploit which all his hearers knew to be entirely fictitious.

It was near the end of the sixteenth century that the present Kirkcudbright Castle within the town was erected by the family of the Maclellans of Bomby, afterwards Earls of Kirk- cudbright. It is, perhaps, to this place, a mansion rather than a fortress, or perhaps to the house of a provost, that is to be referred the uncomplimentary character of the following allusion. In 1650 Charlotte de la Tremouille writes to her sister, from Kirkcudbright, where she was waiting for a passage to the Isle of Man: 'I return (to the Island) to-day, please God; with a fair wind it is but a ten hours' voyage. I have been here 15 days, suffering every imaginable inconvenience, being reduced to eat oaten bread, and some of us to lodge in the house of the chief person of the place, though I never saw anything so dirty. But this is nothing to the religion . . . (The sermons) which I have heard in this place are horrible, having nothing of devotion in them, nor explaining any point of religion, but being full of sedition: warning people by their names, and treating of everything with such ignorance, and without the least respect or reverence, that I am so scandalised that I do not think I could live with a quiet conscience among these atheists.'(3) The Royalist principles of the gallant lady, no doubt, prejudiced her somewhat; but civilization was backward in Scotland in her day, even according to the standard of the time.

During the 18th century the extensive and adventurous smuggling traffic was a bond between Galloway and Mana; it was, however, rather in more remote creeks and coastlands that it was carried on than in a centre of law and government like Kirkcudbright. Possibly the ' Manxman's Lake,' the east- ward extension of the Dee estuary at St. Mary's Isle, received its name in these days.

With a still more recent association of this same beautiful neighbourhood we may conclude this sketch, for the fine estate of St. Mary's Isle, the site of a Benedictine Priory founded by Fergus, is now owned by the family of a former popular and yet well remembered Insular Governor, Sir Charles Hope.

References

(1).'Manx Ballads,' A. W. Moore, p. 18.

(2) James IV visited Kirkudbright in 1501 and 1508. The latter visit must have been just after the Stanley invasion, for, in 1507, he was at Whithorn. Thomas Stanley succeeded in 1504, landed at Ronaldsway (after the raid) in May, 1507, and died in 1521

(3) 'Rambles in Galloway,' M. H. Harper, p. 54.

(4) Readers of Scott will remember how large a part is played by smugglers in 'Guy Mannering,' the scene of which is laid in Galloway, and the 'Kippletringan' of which is probably Kirkcudbright.