Plaoe Names. Gl 



Berwick 5 each ; Crossmichael and Kirkcudbrig-ht each 4 ; Iron- 

 gray and Tongland each 2 ; Troqueei', 2 ; Kelton, 2 ; Colvend, 2 ; 

 Urr and Anwoth, each 1 , the last being- Knock-tinkle. 



Our next Graelic prefix, Drum, is interesting from its very 

 capricious dispersion through the district. If Knock is a rounded 

 hill, distinctly pointed, like a gigantic knuckle in fact, then Drum 

 should be the appellation bestowed upon a long ridgy height. 

 It is not so specifically a Highland feature as many of the other 

 hill forms. Agreeably to this, we find it occurring- only eight 

 times throughout the whole of the large and varied j^arish of 

 Minnigaff, only five times in Kells and Girthon, and only twice in 

 Carsphairn. In Dairy it occurs eleven times, and in Balmaclellan, 

 the adjoining parish, reaches its highest total of twelve. In these 

 two localities you may any day convince yourself of the accuracy 

 of this nomenclature. The central and southern portion of the 

 county have extremely few Drums, seven parishes possessing- only 

 1 each, six others only 2 each, four have 3 each, two have 4 each, 

 one (Balmaghie) has o ; and Parton, which adjoins Dairy and 

 Balmaclellan, has -S. This leaves Kelton and Terreg-les with none 

 at all. 



The impol'tant prefix, Dun (pronounced Dvoun or nearly so), 

 I have found at 27 different localities, some of Avhich are certainly 

 the sites of forts, others as certainly not ; tlius proving that the 

 epithet was applied to a somewhat level-topped prominent hill or 

 hillock, as such, perhaps oftener than to heights upon which any 

 fortification may now be traced. In Carsphairn there are Duubeg, 

 Dundeugh, two Dunmores, and Dunbannoch. In Mhmigaff there 

 is but Dunnance (corruption of the Gaelic diminutive) and the 

 doubtful form Denniemulk ; in Kells, Dunveoch ; in Girthon, 

 Dunharberi-y, Doon o' Culreoch, and, possibly, Dendow, said to be 

 an old form of Disdow ; Balmaclellan has Dunower ; in sea-washed 

 Eerwick we all know Dundrennan and its majestic Abbey ruins, 

 l)ut not all of us have set foot on the, in its way, equally impres- 

 sive stone fort on Dungarry, Galloway's Thermopylag, as I have 

 named it elsewhere. Balmaghie yields two, Duneskit and Dun- 

 nance, the latter a fortified site ; Dunjarg and Dunmuir, in Cross- 

 michael, have both been forts, and superbly situated they were ; 

 so also was Dunguile in Kelton ; Dunrod occurs in Borgue, the 

 site of one of the oldest twelfth or thirteenth century churches 

 dependent upon the Aljbey of Holyrood house ; and it is found 



