PENNINGHAME, a parish, in the county of Wigtown,
8 miles (N. W.) from Wigtown; containing, with
the market-town of Newton-Stewart, 3666 inhabitants,
of whom 1500 are in the rural districts. This place,
the name of which is of obscure and doubtful derivation,
is not distinguished by any events of historical importance.
There are some memorials of a battle having
occurred at a very early period near Killiemore, in the
parish, supposed to have been between the Romans under
Agricola and the ancient Caledonians under Galdus;
but no particulars have been recorded. The residence
of the bishops of Galloway appears to have been at this
place; and the celebrated Bishop Ale.xander Gordon,
who died here in 1576, was also proprietor of the lands
of Clary, in the parish. These he settled upon his only
daughter and heiress, who married Anthony Stewart,
rector of Penninghame, amember of the Galloway family;
and they are now the property of the ninth Earl of
Galloway. The parish is bounded on the north and
east by the river Cree, and on the west by the Bladenoch;
and is about fourteen miles in average length,
and about four miles in average breadth; of very irregular
form; and comprising nearly 38,000 acres, of
which 1'2,000 are arable, 600 woodland and plantations,
1600 meadow, and the remainder hill pasture, moorland,
moss, and waste. The surface rises to a considerable
height in the centre of the parish, the eminences ranging
from north to south, and sloping gradually towards the
rivers on the east and west. It is also diversified with
numerous hills of moderate elevation, and with tracts of
level land, of which latter the moss of Cree, in the
south-east, is almost 2000 acres in extent. The rivers
are, the Cree, which rises on the confines of Ayrshire,
and after flowing for some distance along the border of
the parish, expands into a considerable lake, and pursuing
its course southwards, falls into the bay of Wigtown;
and the Bladenoch, which, issuing from Loch
Mabery, at the north-west angle of the parish, forms the
boundary of Penninghame, and runs eastward through
the parish of Wigtown into the Cree. There are various
small streams, tributaries to the rivers; and several
lakes in the northern part of the parish, but none of
them of any considerable extent, or distinguished by features
deserving particular notice. There are also numerous
springs of excellent water, and a chalybeate spring,
strongly impregnated, but which has long ceased to be
medicinally used. Salmon and grilse are taken in the
Cree in great abundance, during the advanced period of
the season, which commences in January, and continues
till the end of September; sea-trout are caught during
the summer, and fresh-water and yellow trout at all
times. In the month of March the Cree abounds with
smelts, of which great numbers are sent to England;
and in the lakes, and the streams that flow from the
hills into the Cree and the Bladenoch, trout and pike of
large size are found.
On the higher lands the soil is usually dry and fertile,
and on the lower lands in the south a rich loam of
considerable depth; but the land in the intervals between
the hills is in general wet and marshy. In the
northern district the soil is extremely various, but mostly
of inferior quality. The crops are, barley, for which
the ground seems peculiarly favourable, oats, potatoes,
turnips, and the usual grasses, with wheat on the
border of the Moss of Cree. Great improvement has
been made under the encouragement of an agricultural
society established within the last few years; and many
tracts of moss and waste land have been reclaimed, and
brought under profitable cultivation. The lands have
been drained, and embankments have been constructed
by the Earl of Galloway. A due rotation of crops is
regularly observed; and the iuclosures, which are well
adapted to the size of the farms, are chiefly stone dykes,
but occasionally hedges of thorn. The farm-houses have
been also improved, and are generally substantial; and
all the more recent improvements in the construction
of implements have been adopted. Much attention is
paid to live-stock, for which the pastures afford ample
scope. The sheep, which are reared in great numbers,
are mostly of the original native breed on the sheepfarms,
with some of the Leicester and Cheviot breeds in
the southern district of the parish: the cattle are mainly
of the Galloway breed, with some few Irish; and Kyle
cows have been lately introduced, especially for the
dairies in the neighbourhood of Newton-Stewart. Much
of the agricultural produce, and numbers of sheep and
cattle, are sent by water to Glasgow and Greenock, and
to the Liverpool market, for which the river Cree affords
every opportunity, being navigable for vessels of forty
tons, and at spring tides for vessels of greater burthen,
to Carty-Port, about a mile south of Newton-Stewart,
where there is a convenient harbour. There are scarcely
any remains of ancient woods: the plantations consist
of larch, Scotch, and spruce firs, oak, ash, elm, and
beech, which are all in a thriving state; some of them
are on lands not available to any other use, and evergreens
of all kinds grow luxuriantly on damp soils when
the stagnant waters have been drained off. The chief
substrata are of the grcywacke formation, and stone is
extensively quarried for building pin'i)oses, though sometimes
with difliculty; it forms walls of great strength
and iK'auty, and, when managed with care, is perfectly
dry. Galloway granite is also found in several parts,
occurring in masses occasionally mixed with green
sienite, and of many tons' weight; it is much used in
buildings in lien of freestone. The annual value of real
property in the parish is £1 1,324. The mansion-houses
here are, Penninghame House, beautifully situated on
the Cree, about halt' a mile distant from the picturesque
ruins of Castle-Stewart, an ancient seat of the Galloway
family; Merton Hall, two miles to the west of Newton-
Stewart; Corsbie, belonging to the Earl of Galloway;
and Corrisel. There are no villages: the town of Newton-
Stewart is described under its own head. Facility of
communication is maintained by good roads, of which
the military road from Dumfries to Portpatrick intersects
the parish; and by two good bridges respectively
over the Cree and the Bladenoch, the former of which is
a handsome structure of five arches.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposcs the parish is within the
bounds of the presbytery of Wigtown and synod of
Galloway. The minister's stipend is about £232, with
a manse, and a glebe valued at £22. 17. 2. per annum;
patron, the Earl of Galloway. The church, erected in
1777, and enlarged in 1827 by the addition of galleries,
contained 700 sittings; but being in a decayed state,
and inconveniently situated, a new church was erected
at Newton-Stewart in 1841. The present church is in
the later English style, with a tower surmounted by a
lofty spire; it stands upon an eminence, and has 1200
sittings. There are places of worship for members of
the United Presbyterian Church and Reformed Presbyterians,
both in the town, where is also a Roman
Catholic chapel. The parochial school is well attended;
the master has a salary of £34. 4. 4., with a house and
garden, and the fees average about £15 annually. There
are also several endowed schools, one of which has a
salary from the Earl of Galloway, with a school-house
and dwelling-house, built by subscription, to which his
lordship liberally contributed. Another of them was
founded by Achibald Mc Creddie, Esq., who endowed it
with £.500, the interest of which is paid to the master
for the gratuitous instruction of poor children. A third
school was founded by Samuel Douglas, of Jamaica, a
native of the parish, who bequeathed, in trust, to the
ministers of Penninghame and Kirkmabreck and the
three oldest acting elders of each parish, property since
vested in land producing £300 per annum; from which,
after deducting the cost of the erection of an appropriate
building in Newton-Stewart, on a site given by
the Earl of Galloway, the trustees pay £S0 as a salary
to a master, and £20 each for the boarding, clothing,
and education of as many children as the remainder of
the funds will maintain. There are numerous graves
near Killiemore; and near them have been found coins
of great antiquity, but the inscriptions on which were
altogether illegible. The head of a Roman spear, nine
inches in length, and a Roman battle-axe, were discovered
near Merton Hall early in the present century; and celts
of granite, and other relics, have at various times been
dug up. To the north of Newton-Stewart are the ruins
of Castle-Stewart; and there are yet some remains of
the old house of Clary, the property of Gordon, Bishop
of Galloway, in the ancient gardens of which are trees
still bearing fruit. There are ruinous vestiges of the
chapel of St. Ninian, and also of the old church and
burying-ground of Penninghame: near the latter are a
few small cottages called the Clachah, through which
hamlet James IV. passed in 1507 on a pilgrimage to
Whithorn.