Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

DUMBARTONSHIRE RAILWAY
The number of pauper lunatics was 148, and the ex-
penditure on their account was £1163, 3s. 6d. The per-
centage of illegitimate births was 6 '7 in 1871, 5 '9 in
1876, 5-4 in 1879, and 4'8 in 1880.
The territory now forming Dumbartonshire belonged
anciently to the Caledonian Damnonii or Attacotti ; was
included by the Romans in their province of Vespasiana ;
and, exclusive of its detached district, was long a main
part of the ancient district of Lennox or Levenax.
That district included a large part of what is now Stir-
lingshire, and portions of what are now Perthshire and
Renfrewshire. It was constituted a county by William the
Lyon, and underwent curtailments after some period in
the 13th century, reducing it to the limits of the present
main body of Dumbartonshire. The county then changed
its name from Lennox to Dumbartonshire ; and, in the
time of Robert I. , had annexed to it its present detached
district. It was the scene of many contests between
Caledonians and Romans, between Cumbrians and
Saxons, between Scots and Picts, between Highland
clan and Highland elan, between the caterans and the
Lowlanders, between different parties in the several
civil wars of Scotland ; and made a great figure, espe-
cially in the affairs of Antoninus' Wall and those
of the Cumbrian or Strathclyde kingdom, in the events
of the wars of the succession, and the turmoils of the
cateran forays in the time of Rob Roy. Some of the
salient points in its history are touched in the account
of Dumbarton Castle, and in the article on Lennox.
Several cairns and a cromlech still extant, several
rude stone coffins, and fire-hollowed canoes found
imbedded in the mud of the river close to the castle a
few years ago, are memorials of its Caledonian period.
A number of old rude forts or entrenchments, parti-
cularly in its Highland districts, are memorials of
Caledonian, Pictish, and Scandinavian warfare within
its limits. Vestiges of Antoninus' Wall, and relics
found on the site of that wall along all the N border of
its detaohed district, and along the SE border of its
main body onward to the wall's western end at Chapel-
hill in the vicinity of Old Kilpatrick village, and an
ancient bridge and a sudatorium at Duntocher, are
memorials of the Romans. Several objects in Dum-
barton Castle, and particularly historical records in
connection with the castle, are memorials of the civil
wars ; a mound in the E end of Cardross parish, not
far from Dumbarton town, indicates the last residence
or death-place of Robert Bruce ; numerous old castles,
some scarcely traceable, some existing as ruins, some
incorporated with modern buildings, as at Faslane, Bal-
loch, Ardincaple, Dunglass, and Kirkintilloch, are
relics of the several periods of the baronial times ; and
other objects in various parts, particularly in Glenfruin,
are memorials of sanguinary conflicts among the clans.
See Joseph Irving's History of Dumbartonshire, Civil,
Ecclesiastical, and Territorial (Dumb. 1860) ; his Boole
of Dumbartonshire (3 vols. 1879) ; and William Fraser's
Chiefs of Colquhoun and their Country (2 vols., Edinb.,
1869).
Dumbartonshire Railway. See Caledonian Rail-
way.
Dumbreck, a hill on the mutual boundary of Strath-
hlane and Campsie parishes, SW Stirlingshire, culminat-
ing 1 J mile NNE of Strathblane village, and rising to an
altitude of 1664 feet above sea-level. It forms part of
the western chain of the Lennox Hills ; and overhangs
Ballagan Glen on the W, and Fin Glen on the E.
Dumbroek, a triangular loch (2 x § furl. ) in Strath-
blane parish, SW Stirlingshire, 1 mile SW of Strath-
blane village.
Dumbuck, a village and a mansion in the W of Old
Kilpatrick parish, Dumbartonshire. The village stands
near the Clyde, If mile E by S of Dumbarton ; and the
neighbouring mansion, Dumbuck House, is the property
of John Edward Geils, Esq. (b. 1812; sue. 1843), who
owns 655 acres in the shire, valued at £1209 per annum.
Wooded Dumbuck Hill (547 feet), immediately to the
N, is a bold basaltic abutment from the south-western
extremity of the Kilpatrick Hills, that stoops preci-
390
DUMFRIES
pitously to Dumbarton plain. It commands a magni-
ficent prospect from Tinto to Arran, and from the
Grampians to Ayrshire ; and so much outtops Dum-
barton Castle as easily to command it by artillery, yet
was occupied with little effect by Prince Charles Edward's
forces in the '45.
Dumbuils, an eminence (300 feet) in Forgandenny
parish, SE Perthshire, 1 mile SE of Forgandenny village.
Low, craggy, and elliptical, it has traces on the crests
of its accessible sides of an ancient bulwark, formed of
very large granite boulders ; and it commands a brilliant
view of Lower Strathearn and the Firth of Tay.
Dumcrieff, a handsome mansion, with finely wooded
grounds, in Moffat parish, N Dumfriesshire, on the
right bank of Moffat Water, 2 miles SE of Moffat town.
Owned first by Murrays, then by the future Sir George
Clerk of Penicuik, it was the residence about 1785 of
John Loudon Macadam, of road-making celebrity, and
next of Burns's biographer, Dr James Currie (1756-
1805), by whom, a few months before his death, it was
sold to Dr John Rogerson (1741-1S23), court physician
at St Petersburg for close upon fifty years. It now
belongs to his great-grandson, Lord Polio, who holds
7220 acres in the shire, valued at £3044 per annum.
See Duncettb.
Dumfin, an eminence (200 feet) in Luss parish, Dum-
bartonshire, on the left bank of Fruin Water, 3 miles
ENE of Helensburgh. It takes its name, signifying
'the fort of Fin,' from its legendary connection with
Fingal ; and it has traces of an ancient fort.
Dumfries, a town and a parish on the SW border of
Dumfriesshire. A royal and parliamentary burgh, a
seaport — since the era of railways of little importance — ■
a seat of manufacture, the capital of Dumfriesshire, the
assize town for the south-western counties, and practically
the metropolis of a great extent of the S of Scotland,
the town stands on the left bank of the river Mth, and
on the Glasgow and Sonth-Western railway at the
junction of the lines to Lockerbie and Portpatrick, by
rail being 14i miles WSW of Lockerbie, 15* TOW of
Annan, 19* NE of Castle -Douglas, SO* EKE of Port-
patrick, 42A SE of Cumnock, 92 SE by S of Glasgow,
39| S by W of Edinburgh, 33 TOT," of Carlisle, and 333|
NNW of London. The site is mainly a gentle elevation,
nowhere higher than 80 feet above sea-level, partly the
low flat ground at its skirts ; extends about 1 mile from N
to S, parallel to the river ; rises steeply from the banks
at the N end, and is blocked there by a curve in the
river's course ; and bears the lines of Castle Street and
High Street along its summit. Maxyvelltown, along
the Kirkcudbrightshire bank of the Nith, directly oppo-
site and nearly of the same length as Dumfries, seems
to be rather a part of the town than a suburb, and is
partly included in the parliamentary (though not in the
royal) burgh. Behind Maxwelltown to the W is Corbelly
Hill, a broad-based, round, and finely-outlined elevation,
on the summit of which stand a church and convent of
the Immaculate Conception, erected in 1881-82, from de-
signs by Messrs Pugin, for Nuns of the Perpetual Adora-
tion of the Blessed Sacrament ; whilst a little lower down
is a picturesque building, serving the double purpose
of an observatory and a museum of natural history and
antiquities The view from the top of this hill is very
extensive, and also of great natural beauty — the broad
and level valley, for the most part highly cultivated,
of the Nith, abounding in mansions, villas, gardens, and
nursery grounds ; the Moffat and Galloway Hills, with
the higher peaks of Queensberry and Criffel ; and, over
the Solway, the far-away Cumberland mountains. Alto-
gether, the landscape, seen from the top of Corbelly Hill,
is not so unlike the plains of Lorubardy. Dumfries itself,
in architectural structure, relative position, social charac-
ter, marketing importance, and general influence, holds a
high rank among the towns of the kingdom. It is a
minor capital, ruling in the S with nearly as much sway
as Edinburgh in the E. It has either within itself or
in its immediate outskirts an unusually large proportion
of educated and wealthy inhabitants, giving evident
indication of their presence in the tone and manners ;