Transactions. 29 



30tli April — Cardaraine Amara. 



The above list does not comprise all the plants that must 

 have been m bloom at that time, as there was a lot of them that 

 I missed. 

 1st May — Geranium Molle ; Stellaria Graminea ; Valeriana Divica ; 



Callitriche Aquatica. 

 2nd May — Pedicularis Sylvatica ; Ranunculus Bulborus. 



2. — Antiquities of Kirkbean. By Mr SAMUEL Arnott. 



There is considerable difference of opinion regarding the 

 origin and meaning of the name Kirkbean. Chalmers, in " Cale- 

 donia," considers that it may be derived from the Celtic caerhen, 

 " the high fort ;" but, as M'Kerlie remarks, there are no remains 

 of ancient forts to be found, unless what was known as M'Culloch's 

 Castle may have been one. The same writer gives as an alterna- 

 tive that the name was given to the parish on account of the 

 church having been dedicated to St. Bean. Still another deriva- 

 tion, which appears to find favour with M'Kerlie, is that from the 

 Gaelic hen, the word Kirkbean or Kirkben, signifying the kirk at 

 the base of the mountain, in allusion to its situation at the base of 

 Criffel. In the " Place Names of Galloway " Sir Herbert Max- 

 well gives the derivation as from Circ Beam, " Bean's Church," 

 which is in practical agreement with one of Chalmers' suggestions, 

 and appears, on the whole, the most likely to be correct. Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell states that St. Bean was Bishop of Mortlach in 

 1012, Unfortunately the Session records are of too recent date 

 to throw any light upon any variations in the spelling of the name. 

 They do not go any further back than 1747, and in the earlier 

 part of that year the name is spelled Kirkbeeu. The minute of 

 22nd November, 1747, gives the spelling Kirkbean, which from 

 that time was always adopted in the records. 



Of the ancient ecclesiastical history of the parish but little is 

 known ; but the supposition appears to be a probable one that it 

 was at one time united with what is now Newabbey, then known 

 as Lochkendeloch, and that it was included in the grant by 

 Uchtred, Lord of Galloway, to Holm Cultran Abbey, in Cumber- 

 land. It belonged afterwards to Lincluden, and, according to 

 M'Kerlie, the living was at one time said to have been the most 

 valuable in Galloway. This is, however, not now the case 



