Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ANNANDALE
paratively level, at Woodcock Air in the NW and Hill-
town towards the NE but little exceeding 400 feet of
altitude, whilst lesser elevations are Hillside (100 feet),
Whitesprings (223), Creca (356), Bonshawside (323), and
Mossfoot (305). The rocks, belonging to the Carboni-
ferous formation, yield plenty of good sandstone, but not
any workable coal ; the soils are exceedingly various, in-
cluding rich alluvium, strong argillaceous and fine friable
loam, reclaimed moss, and barren moor, but most of the
area is under cultivation. Mansions, with distance from
the town, proprietors' names, and the extent and yearly
value of their estates within the shire, are : — Mount
Annan, 2 miles N (Lieut. -Col. Thos. Dirom, 1502 acres,
£1480) ; Newbie, 2 miles SW (W. D. Mackenzie, 2929
acres, £5263) ; Ashly Grange, 1 mile (Mrs Halbert,
356 acres, £1079) ; Fruidspark, less than 1 mile ( — Bogie,
238 acres, £612) ; Northfield, 1 mile N ; and Warnian-
bie, 1 J mile N. In all, 7 proprietors hold within Annan
a yearly value of £500 and upwards, 34 of between £100
and £500, 57 of from £50 to £100, and 84 of from £20
to £50. The seat of a presbytery in the synod of Dum-
fries, Annan is divided between the quoad sacra parishes
of Annan (living £477), Bridekirk, and Greenknowe, and
contains, too, the mission church of Eirtle. Five public
schools are the Academy, the infant and girls' schools,
Breconbeds, Greenknowe, and Bridekirk, the last under
a separate school-board. With respective accommodation
for 197, 225, 138, 176, and 169 children, these had in
1879 an average attendance of 116, 214, 89, 119, and 97,
and grants of £101, £167, £73, 16s., £74, 3s., and £87,
10s. Valuation (1SS1) £15,801, 7s. 5d. Pop. of civil
parish (1801) 2570, (1851) 5848, (1871) 5240, (1881)
6791 ; of quoad sacra parish (1SS1) 4943. — Ord. Sur.,
shs. 6, 10, 1863-64.
The presbytery of Annan comprehends the old parishes
of Annan, Cummertrees, Dornock, Graitney, Hoddom,
Kirkpatrick-Fleming, Middlebie, and Ruthwell, ihequoad
sacra parishes of Bridekirk and Greenknowe, and the
chapelry of Kirtle. Pop. (1871) 14,676, (1881) 14,426,
of whom, according to a Parliamentary return (1 May
1879), 2312 were communicants of the Church of Scot-
land in 1878, the sums raised by the above 11 congrega-
tions amounting in that year to £861.
Annandale, the middle one of the three divisions of
Dumfriesshire. It is bounded N by Lanarkshire and
Peebleshire, NE by Selkirkshire, E by Eskdale, S by the
Solway Firth, W by Nithsdale, and NW by Lanark-
shire. Regarded now as commensurate with the basin
of the river Annan, together with small adjacent portions
of seaboard, it anciently included parts of what now are
the southern extremities of Eskdale and Nithsdale.
Under the name of ' Estra-hanent,' it was given by
David I., in 1124, to Robert de Bruis, grandson of one of
William the Conqueror's Norman barons. This Robert,
eventually disagreeing with David on a question of
national policy, in 1138 renounced his allegiance to the
king; in 1141 he died at Guisburn, or Guisborough, in
Yorkshire, leaving his patrimony there to his elder son.
His younger son, also called Robert Bruce, adhered to
David I., received the inheritance of Annandale, and
lived through the reign of Malcolm IV. into that of
William the Lyon. His son, another Robert, succeeded
him in Annandale, married a natural daughter of Wil-
liam the Lyon, and died in 1191. Robert, fourth Lord
of Annandale, laid the foundation of the royal house of
Bruce by marrying Isabella, second daughter of David,
Earl of Huntingdon, and brother of William the Lyon.
His son and namesake opposed the Comyn influence in
the affairs of Scotland, and, at the age of 81, engaged in
the competition for the Scottish crown, but ultimately
resigned his rights in favour of his son. That son, still
Robert, went in 1269 to Palestine with Edward of Eng-
land ; married, soon after his return, Margaret, Countess
of Carrick in her own right ; came thence to be known
as Earl of Carrick ; and had, by his lady, five sons, the
eldest of whom became the royal Bruce. Annandale,
throughout the time of the Bruces, and specially under
King Robert, figured conspicuously in Scottish history.
Lochmaben was the chief seat of the family ; and it
52
ANN'S BRIDGE
abounds to the present day in memorials or traditions
of their princely grandeur. All Annandale, indeed, is
rich in relics and memories of the Roman times, of the
great struggle for the Scottish crown, and of Border
wars and forays. Its Roman antiquities and mediaeval
castles outnumber those of any other district of equal
extent in Scotland. The lordship of Annandale passed,
about 1371, on the demise of David II., to Randolph,
Earl of Moray ; and afterwards, with the hand of his
sister Agnes, went to the Dunbars, Earls of March. The
Douglases got it after the forfeiture of the Dunbars ; and
they eventually lost it by their own forfeiture. A mar-
quisate of Annandale was conferred in 1701 on the
Johnstones, who previously had been created Barons
Johnstone of Lochwood (1633), and Earls of Annandale
and Viscounts of Annan (1643). The marquisate became
dormant in 1792, at the death of George, third marquis,
and is now claimed by Sir Frederick John William John-
stone of Westerhall, Bart., John James Hope- Johnstone,
Esq. of Annandale, and three others. The famous Ben
Jonson was really not a Jonson but a Johnstone, a
descendant of the Annandale Johnstones. See Mrs
Cumming Brace's Family Records of the Bruces and the
Oomyns (Priv. prin., Edinb. 1S70).
Annandale's Beef-Stand, Marquis of, or Devil's Beef-
Tub, a strange conchoidal hollow in Moffat parish,
Dumfriesshire, 5 miles NNW of Moffat town. It lies
near the source of Annan Water, just off the pass of
Erickstane Brae from Annandale into Tweeddale, and to
the N is overhung by Great Hill, 1527 feet high. ' It
received its name,' says the Laird of Summertrees in
Scott's Rcdgaunllet, ' because the Annandale loons used
to put their stolen cattle in there ; and it looks as if four
hills were laying their heads together to shut out day-
light from the dark, hollow space between them. A
deep, black, blackguard-looking abyss of a hole it is, and
goes straight down from the roadside, as perpendicular
as it can do, to be a heathery brae. At the bottom
there is a small bit of a brook, that you would think
could hardly find its way out from the hills that are so
closely jammed around it.' At the bottom also is a
martyred Covenanter's grave ; and its second alias, 'Mac-
Cleran's Loup,' records the escape of a Highland rebel in
the '45, who, wrapped in his plaid, rolled like a hedge-
hog down the steep declivity amid a shower of musket-
balls — an incident Scott used in his romance (Lauder's
Scottish Rivers, ed. 1874, p. 37).
Ann at, a davoch in Kiltarlity parish, Inverness-shire,
on the N side of the river Beauly.
Annaty, a burn in Scone parish, Perthshire, running
westward to the Tay. It affords several good waterfalls
for the driving of machinery.
Annbank, a mining village in the SW of Tarbolton
parish. Ayrshire, with a station on the Ayr and Muir-
kirk line, 5 miles ENE of Ayr. It has a post oflice with
money order and savings' bank departments under Tar-
bolton Station, a chapel of ease to Tarbolton erected in
1871, and a school which in 1879 had an average atten-
dance of 342 day and 65 evening scholars, and received
grants of £246, 15s. and £30, 7s. 6d. Pop. (1871) 1151,
(1S81)1240.
Annet, a burn in Kilmadock parish, S Perthshire,
formed by two rivulets that rise in the Braes of Doune,
on the southern slope of Uamh Bheag (2179 feet). In-
cluding the longer of these, it has a SSE course of 6J
miles, making a number of beautiful cascades, and falling
into the Teith, 1 J mile WNW of Doune.
Annick, a small river, partly of Renfrewshire, but
chiefly of Ayrshire, rises in Mearns parish, to the E of
Long Loch, and flowing south-westward past Stewarton,
falls into Irvine Water, 1 mile above Irvine town, after
a course of 16 miles. Its chief affluents are the Swinsey,
East, and Clerkland burns above, and the Glazert burn, 3
miles below, Stewarton — all of them better trouting
streams than the Annick itself.
Ann's Bridge, a picturesque locality in Johnstone
parish, Dumfriesshire, on the river Kinnel, 7J miles
N by W of Lochmaben. A bridge here, on the line of road
from Dumfries to Edinburgh, was built in 17S2, rebuilt