Place:


Castle Kennedy  Wigtownshire

 

In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Castle Kennedy like this:

Castle-Kennedy, a hamlet, a lake, and a ruined ivy-mantled mansion in Inch parish, Wigtownshire. The hamlet lies adjacent to the Dumfries and Portpatrick railway, and to the southern extremity of the lake, 3 miles E by S of Stranraer, and has a station on the railway, a post office, and a public school. ...


The lake is cut so deeply by a peninsula, as sometimes to be reckoned rather two lakes than one, called Black and White Lochs, which extend parallel to each other, from NNW to SSE, Black Loch having an utmost length and breadth of 13/8 mile and 2¾ furlongs, White Loch of 7½ and 31/3 furlongs. Each contains an islet; and on the south-south-eastward peninsula between the two stands the ruined mansion, included now in the beautiful policies of Lochinch, a seat of the Earl of Stair. Built by John, fifth Earl of Cassillis in 1607, it passed about 1677, with the surrounding property, to Sir John Dalrymple, afterwards Viscount Stair. It was a stately square edifice, but, being accidentally destroyed by fire in 1716, it was never restored. The ' dressed grounds ' were laid out by Field-Marshal Stair in the Dutch style of landscape gardening, and, after some forty years of neglect, have more than recovered their former beauty since 1841. See pp. 99-103 of Wm. M'Ilwraith's Wigtownshire (2d ed. 1875).

Castle Kennedy through time

Castle Kennedy is now part of Dumfries and Galloway district. Click here for graphs and data of how Dumfries and Galloway has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Castle Kennedy itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Castle Kennedy, in Dumfries and Galloway and Wigtownshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21365

Date accessed: 29th March 2024


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