He seems, however, to have believed that an arrangement with Mary was possible, and coming under the influence of Maitland of Lethington, whom in September 1569 he released by a stratagem from his confinement in Edinburgh, he was soon “vehemently suspected of his fellows.” After the murder of Murray Kirkcaldy ranged himself definitely among the friends of the imprisoned queen. About this time he forcibly released one of his supporters from imprisonment, a step which led to an altercation with his former friend John Knox, who called him a “murderer and throat-cutter.” Defying the regent Lennox, Kirkcaldy began to strengthen the fortifications of Edinburgh castle, of which he was governor, and which he held for Mary, and early in 1573 he refused to come to an agreement with the regent Morton because the terms of peace did not include a section of his friends. After this some English troops arrived to help the Scots, and in May 1573 the castle surrendered. Strenuous efforts were made to save Kirkcaldy from the vengeance of his foes, but they were unavailing; Knox had prophesied that he would be hanged, and he was hanged on the 3rd of August 1573.
See Sir James Melville’s Memoirs, edited by T. Thomson (Edinburgh, 1827); J. Grant, Memoirs and Adventures of Sir W. Kirkaldy (Edinburgh, 1849); L. A. Barbé, Kirkcaldy of Grange (1897); and A. Lang, History of Scotland, vol. ii. (1902).
KIRKCUDBRIGHT (pron. Ker-kú-bri), a royal and police burgh,
and county town of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901),
2386. It is situated at the mouth of the Dee, 6 m. from the sea
and 30 m. S.W. of Dumfries by the Glasgow & South-Western
railway, being the terminus of a branch line. The old form of
the name of the town was Kilcudbrit, from the Gaelic Cil Cudbert,
“the chapel of Cuthbert,” the saint’s body having lain here for
a short time during the seven years that lapsed between its
exhumation at Lindisfarne and the re-interment at Chester-le-Street.
The estuary of the Dee is divided at its head by the
peninsula of St Mary’s Isle, but though the harbour is the best
in south-western Scotland, the great distance to which the tide
retreats impairs its usefulness. Among the public buildings are
the academy, Johnstone public school, the county buildings,
town-hall, museum, Mackenzie hall and market cross, the last-named
standing in front of the old court-house, which is now
used as a drill hall and fire-station. No traces remain of the
Greyfriars’ or Franciscan convent founded by Alexander II.,
nor of the nunnery that was erected in the parish of Kirkcudbright.
The ivy-clad ruins of Bomby castle, founded in 1582
by Sir Thomas Maclellan, ancestor of the barons of Kirkcudbright,
stand at the end of the chief street. The town, which
witnessed much of the international strife and Border lawlessness,
was taken by Edward I. in 1300. It received its royal
charter in 1455. After the battle of Towton, Henry VI. crossed
the Solway (August 1461) and landed at Kirkcudbright to join
Queen Margaret at Linlithgow. It successfully withstood the
English siege in 1547 under Sir Thomas Carleton, but after the
country had been overrun was compelled to surrender at discretion.
Lord Maxwell, earl of Morton, as a Roman Catholic,
mustered his tenants here to act in concert with the Armada;
but on the approach of King James VI. to Dumfries he took ship
at Kirkcudbright and was speedily captured. The burgh is one
of the Dumfries district group of parliamentary burghs. On
St Mary’s Isle was situated the seat of the earl of Selkirk, at
whose house Robert Burns gave the famous Selkirk grace:—
| “Some ha’e meat; and canna eat, |
Fergus, lord of Galloway, a celebrated church-builder of the 12th century, had his principal seat on Palace Isle in a lake called after him Loch Fergus, near St Mary’s Isle, where he erected the priory de Trayle, in token of his penitence for rebellion against David I. The priory was afterwards united as a dependent cell to the abbey of Holyrood. Dundrennan Abbey, 412 m. S.E., was, however, his greatest achievement. It was a Cistercian house, colonized from Rievaulx, and was built in 1140. There now remain only the transept and choir, a unique example of the Early Pointed style. Tongueland (or Tungland), 212 m. N. by E., has interesting historical associations. It was the site of a Premonstratensian abbey built by Fergus, and it was here that Queen Mary rested in her flight from the field of Langside (May 13, 1568). The well near Tongueland bridge from which she drank still bears the name of the Queen’s Well.
KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE (also known as the Stewartry
of Kirkcudbright and East Galloway), a south-western
county of Scotland, bounded N. and N.W. by Ayrshire, W. and
S.W. by Wigtownshire, S. and S.E. by the Irish Sea and Solway
Firth, and E. and N.E. by Dumfriesshire. It includes the small
islands of Hestan and Little Ross, which are utilized as lighthouse
stations. It has an area of 575,565 acres or 899 sq. m.
The north-western part of the shire is rugged, wild and desolate.
In this quarter the principal mountains are Merrick (2764 ft.),
the highest in the south of Scotland, and the group of the Rinns
of Kells, the chief peaks of which are Corscrine (2668), Carlins
Cairn (2650), Meikle Millyea (2446) and Millfire (2350). Towards
the south-west the chief eminences are Lamachan (2349),
Larg (2216), and the bold mass of Cairnsmore of Fleet (2331).
In the south-east the only imposing height is Criffel (1866). In
the north rises the majestic hill of Cairnsmuir of Carsphairn
(2612), and close to the Ayrshire border is the Windy Standard
(2287). The southern section of the shire is mostly level or
undulating, but characterized by much picturesque scenery.
The shore is generally bold and rocky, indented by numerous
estuaries forming natural harbours, which however are of little
use for commerce owing to the shallowness of the sea. Large
stretches of sand are exposed in the Solway at low water and the
rapid flow of the tide has often occasioned loss of life. The
number of “burns” and “waters” is remarkable, but their
length seldom exceeds 7 or 8 m. Among the longer rivers are
the Cree, which rises in Loch Moan and reaches the sea near
Creetown after a course of about 30 m., during which it forms
the boundary, at first of Ayrshire and then of Wigtownshire; the
Dee or Black Water of Dee (so named from the peat by which
it is coloured), which rises in Loch Dee and after a course mainly
S.E. and finally S., enters the sea at St Mary’s Isle below Kirkcudbright,
its length being nearly 36 m.; the Urr, rising in Loch
Urr on the Dumfriesshire border, falls into the sea a few miles
south of Dalbeattie 27 m. from its source; the Ken, rising on the
confines of Ayrshire, flows mainly in a southerly direction and
joins the Dee at the southern end of Loch Ken after a course of
24 m. through lovely scenery; and the Deugh which, rising on
the northern flank of the Windy Standard, pursues an extraordinarily
winding course of 20 m. before reaching the Ken.
The Nith, during the last few miles of its flow, forms the boundary
with Dumfriesshire, to which county it almost wholly belongs.
The lochs and mountain tarns are many and well distributed;
but except Loch Ken, which is about 6 m. long by 12 m. wide, few
of them attain noteworthy dimensions. There are several passes
in the hill regions, but the only well-known glen is Glen Trool,
not far from the district of Carrick in Ayrshire, the fame of which
rests partly on the romantic character of its scenery, which is
very wild around Loch Trool, and more especially on its associations
with Robert Bruce. It was here that when most closely
beset by his enemies, who had tracked him to his fastness by
sleuth hounds, Bruce with the aid of a few faithful followers won
a surprise victory over the English in 1307 which proved the
turning-point of his fortunes.
Geology.—Silurian and Ordovician rocks are the most important in this county; they are thrown into oft-repeated folds with their axes lying in a N.E.-S.W. direction. The Ordovician rocks are graptolitic black shales and grits of Llandeilo and Caradoc age. They occupy all the northern part of the county north-west of a line which runs some 3 m. N. of New Galloway and just S. of the Rinns of Kells. South-east of this line graptolitic Silurian shales of Llandovery age prevail; they are found around Dalry, Creetown, New Galloway, Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright. Overlying the Llandovery beds on the south coast are strips of Wenlock rocks; they extend from Bridgehouse Bay to Auchinleck and are well exposed in Kirkcudbright Bay, and they can be traced farther round the coast between the granite and the younger rocks. Carboniferous rocks appear in small faulted tracts, unconformable on the Silurian, on
