Dornock

Dornock, a village and a coast parish of Annandale, Dumfriesshire. Standing ½ mile inland, the village has a station on the Glasgow and South-Western railway 14 miles NW of Carlisle and 3 E of Annan, under which it has a post office.

The parish, containing also Lowtherton village, 1 mile E by N of Dornock village, is bounded N and NE by Kirkpatrick-Fleming, E by Gretna, S by the Solway Firth, and W and NW by Annan. Its greatest length, from N to S, is 4½ miles; it greatest breadth is 2½ miles; and its area is 5779¾ acres, of which 1149½ are foreshore, nearly 4 are water, and 523 belong to the Robgill detached portion, lying ½ mile to the N and surrounded by Kirkpatrick-Fleming and Annan. The Solway here is 1½ mile wide; but its channel, barely ¼ mile across, may be forded at low tide, by those at least who know the perils of their path. The shore-line, 2¼ miles long, is low and sandy; and from it the surface very gradually rises to 59 feet at Muirhouse, 135 near Stapleton, 200 beyond Hallton, and 265 at Broadlea in the Robgill portion, whose NE border is traced for 7 furlongs by Kirtle Water, the only stream of any consequence. The land is all low; and, excepting some 40 acres of wood and 750 either pastoral or waste, is all under the plough. Neither coal nor limestone has been found, but sandstone is plentiful. The soil, in general, is loam on a clayey bottom. The antiquities comprise remains of an ancient Caledonian stone circle, traces of a Roman military road, the towers of Robgill and Stapleton, and several curious old tombstones in the parish graveyard, where are also three sculptured stones. Swordwellrig, 7 furlongs WNW of the village, is said to have been the scene in the 15th century of a victory over the English, in which Sir William Broun of Coalstoun defeated and slew Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Lord Crosby. Robgill, Stapleton, and Blackyett are the chief mansions; and 5 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 5 of between £100 and £500,3 of from £50 to £100, and 3 of from £20 to £50. Dornock is in the presbytery of Annan and synod of Dumfries; the living is worth £330. The church, built in 1793, contains 300 sittings. A public school and an infant and female school, with respective accommodation for 86 and 77 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 68 and 43, and grants of £55,4s. and £34,13s. Valuation (1882) £7177,16s. 4d. Pop. (1801) 788, (1831) 752, (1861) 856, (1871) 826, (1881) 814.—Ord. Sur., shs. 6,10, 1863-64.