THE RAID TO KIRKOUDBEIGHT. 



BY THE RAIDERS. 



Chapter I.— THE SCENE. 



IRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE, or, as it is more 

 frequently termed, the Stewartry, constitutes 

 about two-thirds of the whole province of 

 Galloway. It is bounded on the north and north-west 

 by Ayrshire ; on the east and north-east by Dumfries- 

 shire; on the south by the Solway Frith and the Irish 

 Sea; and on the west by the county of VVigtonshire, Its 

 extreme length and breadth are forty-four and thirty-one 

 miles respectively. Its general outline is irregular, but, as 

 a whole, bears some resemblance to the form or figure of a 

 trapezoid. It contains large tracts of stratified rocks, 

 which are either nearly perpendicular, or slanting towards 

 the north-west, and which consist, sparsely, of the new red 

 sandstone, and chiefly of the ordinary whinstone and the 

 I'g^'it grey granite. The north-western district, which 

 embraces nearly two-thirds of the whole area of the 

 county, is bold and somewhat rugged and mountainous. 

 Blackcraig, which is situated on the north-eastern 

 boundary of the Stewartry, is nearly 2,300 feet above the 



