page_title: Kirkandrews, Dumfries and Galloway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kirkandrews, Dumfries and Galloway / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Castle Haven, Dumfries and Galloway, Schottland. Prähistorisches DunEnglish: Castle Haven, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Prehistoric Dun
context_page_description: Kirkandrews, sometimes written as Kirkanders in older documents, is a coastal hamlet about 9 kilometres west-southwest of Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It sits in farmland at the head of Kirkandrews Bay, an inlet of Wigtown Bay.
  The history of Kirkandrews' name is not altogether clear. Some authors have suggested that it was named for a Northumbrian or Irish saint who established a church here in the first millennium; certainly there was an ancient church at the site, but most recent scholarship suggests that both the original church and its name have been lost, and that a new church was built and dedicated to St Andrew, the apostle and patron saint of Scotland, at some point before 1174.
  Evidence of human habitation at the site dates to the Iron Age, and a Christian church has been there since the early medieval period.
  Originally an independent parish, it was amalgamated into the parish of Borgue in the 1790s. There was a barony of Kirkandrews, which changed hands many times during its history.
context_section_description: The area around Kirkandrews Bay retains evidence of very early human activity. At Tongue Croft, in a field just to the east of the village, is a rock bearing a set of four prehistoric cup and ring marks with up to six rings. There are signs of Iron Age habitation at Castle Haven, 700 metres (0.4 mi) along the coastline to the north west, in the form of a 1st-century BCE dun. This structure shows signs of reuse in the late first millennium, and was largely rebuilt and heightened in 1905. It is known locally as the Borg or Borgue, probably from the Old Norwegian word for a fort, indicating probable Scandinavian use.
  Angles from Northumbria conquered much of south west Scotland in the 7th century, and there is evidence of an Anglian coastal settlement at Kirkandrews. Older histories record that a church was established at the site by monks from Iona very early in Scotland's Christian history, and that it was transferred to the ownership of Holyrood Abbey in the 12th century by William the Lion. More recent work has called some of these details into question. Brooke argues that there were in fact two early Christian settlements in the vicinity called Kirkandrews: this one, Kirkandrews Purton (port village), and another some miles away known as Kirkandrews Balmaghie (village in the woods). She believes that it was Kirkandrews Balmaghie that was founded by Iona and later transferred to Holyrood, but agrees that there was certainly an Anglian religious settlement at Kirkandrews Porton, and that the old churchyard that survives today is at least pre-conquest in age.
  In the 13th century, the barony of Kirkandrews was granted to Robert de Champaign, brother to the constable of Roxburgh Castle Ralph de Champaign. Robert ruled the area from a substantial nearby stronghold, the earthworks of which survive and are known as Roberton Motte. It passed to his son, also named Robert, and then to his daughter Margaret and her husband, the Northumbrian nobleman Bernard de Rippelay. There are records of the lands being leased by William Lennox of Cally in the 15th century, and in 1472 James III granted the barony to William, Lord Moneypenny, who had served as a Scottish diplomat at the court of Louis XI of France.
  In the late 16th century the barony was purchased by John Gordon of Lochinvar, and in the 17th century the village hosted thriving annual markets. The minister Andrew Symson, in his Large Description of Galloway published in 1684, records that "in the kirk-yard of Kirkanders, upon the ninth day of August, there is a fair kept, called St. Lawrence Fair, where all sorts of merchant-wares are to be sold; but the fair only lasts for three or four hours, and then the people, who flock hither in great companies, drink and debauch, and commonly great lewdness is committed here at this fair."
  In the late 1790s, the Statistical Accounts of Scotland record that the parish of Kirkandrews was merged with those of Borgue and Senwick; the new amalgamated parish was known simply as Borgue. The Accounts also record that a planned village was to be built at Kirkandrews by Lord Daer, but this plan was never realised. The settlement around that time appears to have been in a very run-down condition: Daniel and Ayton, recounting their visit in the summer of 1813, described it as "the ne plus ultra of lowness and obscurity". They explain that it had previously been a centre of smuggling but that customs officers had seized all the village's boats and broken up the racket, leaving the inhabitants with no means of making an income.
  The Ordnance Survey map of 1854 shows a corn mill at Kirkandrews, and four buildings labelled Guttieside, Meggerland, Craighouse and Knockkennock. By the late 19th century, Kirkandrews seems to have become a quiet and romantic backwater. A guidebook to the area, published in 1876, describes a pleasant walk into the village, where "the murmur of the little stream, as it glides over the stones and brushwood in its course, is wafted to the ear, and nought of din, or sign of life, is heard or seen, save one of the aged liferenters 
caption: The dun at Castle Haven, an Iron Age stone fort extensively renovated in the early 20th century
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