The Glenkens in tite Olden Times. 135 



continue to spend upon it. The thanks of the Society are certainly 

 clue to these ladies for their careful g-uardianship of the collec- 

 tion. 



10/// April, 1S9G. 



III.— The Glenkens in the 01 den Times. B,7 Mr James 

 Barrouu, of Dairy. 



The Glenkens, or valley of the river Ken, lies in the north of 

 Kirkcudbrightshire, and extends from New-Galloway Railway 

 Station on the south to Ayrshire on the north, and from the river 

 Dee on the west to Dumfriesshire on the east. It is 28 miles 

 from north to south, and 18 miles from east to west. The heig-ht 

 above sea level is about 120 feet at head of Loch Ken and 2688 

 feet on Corserine, the highest hill in the Glenkens. It is one of 

 the most beautiful valleys in the south of Scotland. Except a 

 fringe of cultivated land on each side of the Ken it is wholly 

 pastoral — consequently its primitive condition is the more easily 

 ascertained. The parishes of Balmaclellan and Dairy lie on the 

 east side of the Ken, and Kells and Cai'sphairn on the west side. 



"When the Romans entered Galloway about A.D. 80 they found 

 the country covered with wood except the exposed soilless 

 summits of the rocks and low marshy spots where wood would 

 not grow. The trees in the Glenkens were princijDally oak, ash, 

 birch, alder, and rowan-tree or mountain ash. There would also 

 be an undergrowth of hazel and thorns, both white and black, in 

 some places, as may be seen now in patches and clumps of old 

 natural wood at Gairloch, Tannoch, Forest, on the banks of 

 Garroch and Knockuarling and Garpol Burns, and at several other 

 places. There had also been thickets of fir trees, an instance of 

 which is seen at the foot of Loch Dung-eon, where the water has 

 washed the soil from the roots. Where peats are cut in deep 

 moss the spade goes through numerous branches of birch and 

 hazel with the nuts still retaining their shape. Trunks of large 

 oak trees are found with the wood yet quite hard. Often on the 

 highest hills, where no improvements have been attempted, the 

 roots of large oak trees are yet to be seen. In no part of the 

 south of Scotland can those old relics of bygone ages bo traced 

 so well as among the hills of Kells and Minnigaff. Those forests 

 were stocked with wild cattle, horses, the unis — an animal 



