Wigtownshire

Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Wigtownshire 11th century

Castle of St John (Stranraer Castle) in Rhinns.

The original County Buildings at Wigtown in Machars.

Torhousekie Stone Circle

Stranraer Museum

Galloway, Mapa Scotland, Barony Castle

Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown is a registration county in Galloway existing within the District Council Region of Dumfries and Galloway in the Southern Uplands of south west Scotland. Until 1975, the county was one of the administrative counties used for local government purposes, and is now administered as part of the council area of the Dumfries and Galloway region.^[1] "Wigtownshire" is used by CANMORE in their records.

The county town was historically Wigtown, with the administrative centre moving to Stranraer—the largest town—on the creation of a county council in 1890.

There are 2 Councillors for Stranraer and North Rhins, 2 for Wigtown West, and 3 for Mid Galloway. These Councillors / Members details and surgeries are at ^[2]

As Wigtown (Wigtownshire), the county forms the lieutenancy area of the Lord Lieutenant of Wigtown (Wigtownshire).^[3]

There is a Wigtownshire Chamber of Commerce,^[4] the Wigtown Agricultural Society ^[5] and the Scottish Women's Rural Institute - Wigtownshire.^[6]

Wigtownshire borders the Irish Sea to the west, Ayrshire to the north, and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright to the east. Together The Stewartry and Wigtownshire are referred to as Galloway.^[7]

The western area is known as Rhinns of Galloway ^[8] and the eastern area is known as Machars. Wigtownshire includes the southernmost point in Scotland, the Mull of Galloway, the Machars and the Rhins of Galloway peninsula.

The ex-King of Dublin and Man or Mann, Echmarcach mac Ragnaill, had the title Rex Innarenn King of the Rhinns Kingdom of the Rhinns attributed to him on his death in 1065 AD. The western sections of Galloway had been firmly aligned with the Isle of Man, and Norse and Gaelic-Norse settlement names from the 10th and 11th centuries are spread all along the coastal lands of south-western Scotland.

The Castle of St. John, known as Stranraer Castle, in Rhinns of Galloway is a Visitor Centre and museum.^[9]

Major road links to the area comprise the A77 to the north, and A75 to the east.

The European route E18 starts in Northern Ireland and runs from Craigavon (M1) – Belfast (M2, A8) – Larne, then to Scotland: Stranraer, Wigtownshire (A75) – Gretna (M6) – Carlisle (A69) to Newcastle. It then re-joins at Norway, goes through Sweden, Finland and ends at Saint Petersburg, Russia. Like all European routes, it is not signposted as such in the United Kingdom.

The European Union is partly financing "The Stranraer and Loch Ryan Waterfront Project", Inch, Wigtownshire for now and future generations.^[10]

1 University of Glasgow's community archaeology project in Inch
2 Lord Lieutenant for Wigtownshire
3 Torehousekie Stone Circle
4 The Sorbie Neolithic Polished Axe-head
5 The 2300-2000BC Gold Lunula
6 Place of significant interest
7 The henge, an important Stone Age site in Scotland
8 Fifty Ancient Forts
9 Wigtownshire Parishes
10 Areas
11 Castles and ruins (see Scottish feudal barony )
12 Royal Burghs
13 Towns and villages
14 References
15 External links

[edit] University of Glasgow's community archaeology project in Inch

Discovering Dumfries and Galloway's Past. In September a group worked with Giles Carey doing a geo-physics survey of the area to the north of the motte at Innermessan between Stranraer and Cairnryan. It is a site with a very long history – from early mesolithic ancestors, about 10,000 years ago to a medieval town, now disappeared, which in its time was more important than Stranraer. The funding for the first phase of the study is until February 2013, but it is hoped that once the geo-physics investigations have taken place, further funding will enable a more thorough investigation over a three-year period.^[11]^[12]

[edit] Lord Lieutenant for Wigtownshire

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Wigtown (Wigtownshire), a county in the Dumfries and Galloway council area of south-west Scotland.

The current title of the Lord Lieutenant is Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for Wigtown,^[13] or the Lord Lieutenant for the Area of Wigtown.

The area of Wigtown, the name of the relevant lieutenancy area of the Lord Lieutenant, encompasses not only the town of Wigtown, but the historic county or Wigtownshire. As such, the office continues to be referred to as the "Lord Lieutenant of Wigtownshire".^[14]

Between 1794 and 1975, the official title of the office was His or Her Majesty's Lieutenant in the County of Wigtown. From 1975, the title became Lord-Lieutenant in Dumfries and Galloway Region (District of Wigtown), altering in 1996 to its present form "Her Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant for Wigtown" (Wigtownshire).^[15]^[16]

A 2007 map of the Wards in the Lieutenancy area of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway (Council area) is at http://gretnaonline.net/index.aspx?articleid=1249

A 2001 map of Local Plan Areas in the Lieutenancy area of Wigtownshire in Dumfries & Galloway (Council area) is at http://gretnaonline.net/index.aspx?articleid=1249

[edit] Torehousekie Stone Circle

Dating from the 2nd millennium BC, this is one of the best preserved sites in Britain. The circle is approx. 60 feet in diameter and comprises 19 stones up to 5 feet high.^[17]

[edit] The Sorbie Neolithic Polished Axe-head

A polished axe-head, commonly used for Neolithic types, was found at Sorbie Tower.

[edit] The 2300-2000BC Gold Lunula

An unnamed detectorist found the new lunula in a cultivated field near Garlieston, Sorbie in March 2011, the first Scottish gold lunula found in over 100 years.

Scraps of gold found in the Sorbie area will focus attention on the mystery that is the lunula, a flat, crescent-shaped neck ornament thought to date from around 2300 – 2200BBC, and described by some archaeologists as a symbol of power.

The gold sheet, probably hammered out from a bar, is very thin (0.15–0.5 mm) and decorated around its edges with incised and punched zigzags, lines and dots. It had been cut up and folded, and the two pieces do not join; together they amount to just under a third of the original collar.

Initial surface analysis has shown that the metal contains 11% silver and 0.5% copper. Further analysis may indicate whether the lunula had been made of Irish or Scottish gold.

Staff of Stranraer Museum excavated two test pits; and Historic Scotland commissioned Rose Geophysical Consultants to undertake a geophysical survey.

Stranraer Museum and the Wigtownshire branch of the University of the Third Age walked the field looking for artefacts.^[18]

No more metalwork was found, nor any evidence for why the lunula might have been buried there.^[19]

[edit] Place of significant interest

From Glenluce Sands there have been recovered "more objects of antiquity than from any area of similar extent in Scotland". The relics range from neolithic to mediaeval times.^[20]

Details of the Lake Dwellings (Crannogs) of Wigtownshire and other archaeological finds are in Archaeological and Historical Collections relating to Ayrshire and Galloway. vol.V. pp. 74–124 and forts pp. 62–73 ^[21] and vol.III ^[22]

[edit] The henge, an important Stone Age site in Scotland

The fields between the mound and Dunragit village and Droughduil Mote Old Luce, Wigtownshire, contain one of the most important Stone Age sites in Scotland. photo at ^[23]

Aerial photography and archaeological excavation of the henge has revealed the remains of three massive concentric timber circles; the outer circle was 300m in diameter, almost six times the size of Stonehenge.

Built c. 2500 BC, this huge monument was a ceremonial centre and a meeting place for south-west Scotland's early farming communities. http://orgs.man.ac.uk/research/dunragit/

Funding for the dig was provided by Historic Scotland and the University of Southampton.

The staff at Stranraer Museum assisted with computing and communications facilities and access to collections.