Antiquities of Girthon. 79 



theory of a Latin origin of the name, or connect it with a " Camp 

 HUl " at all. Rightly or wrongly, he believes it is Celtic, and 

 means " the Foot of the Elder Tree." 



That there has been some ancient fortification at Castramont 

 is, I suppose, certain. But it is very difficult to say at the pre- 

 sent day how much of the appearance of the ground is due to it, 

 and how much to the levelling* when the present mansion-house 

 was built. The author of " Lands and their Owners in Galloway " 

 regards it as a piece of Roman work, and even suggests that a 

 mound in the garden marks the site of the Prsetorium. Such a 

 sug-g'estion is hazardous when one remembers Edie Ochiltree, and 

 indeed there is at present living in the neighbourhood a person 

 whose grandfather is said to have "minded the bigging o't" from 

 some rubbish which could not be otherwise disposed of. For these 

 reasons I venture to think that no one is entitled to speak with 

 certainty on the subject of Castramont without a more careful and 

 exhaustive surve3^ than has yet been made. 



Far up the parish, in the moors near Loch Skerrow, there is 

 a stone, which I take to be an " Old Mortality," erected over the 

 grave of Robert Fergusson, shot on the spot by Claverhouse in 

 1684. 



These are the only ancient remains which I remember, for I 

 do not consider a mere fragment of the ancient mansion-house of 

 Cally (which is the only one named in the last " Statistical 

 Accoimt ") of any interest at all. It is very probable that others 

 might be found by some one who had the genuine antiquary's 

 eye, and more leisure than I have enjoyed, in the remote and now 

 uninhabited parts of the parish. There can be no doubt that at 

 one time the population was much moi-e equally distributed over 

 its great extent than it is at present. The town of Gatehouse is 

 modern, the first house having been built about 1760. There is a 

 "town of Fleet" referred to in the History of Edward L's inva- 

 sion, but where it was situated tradition does not say. Symson in 

 1684 refers to •' a place called Gatehouse-of-Fleet." As usual, 

 there are ever so many suggested derivations of the name — e.g.^ 

 the House at the Gate of Cally (which is absurd), the House where 

 the Gaits (goats) were gathered (which is far-fetched), the House 

 on the Gate, meaning the Road, which is more likely than either. 



But judging from the situation of the church and the old 

 parish records, the chief centres of population were on the one 



