6 Tin-; Parish of Luce. 



the Clint Ilill aud the Trumpet Knowes on the south-east. 

 The Bi'ownmuir closes in the fertile vale, which is sheltered 

 from " a' the airts the wind can blaw." The three churches 

 as seen from Luce form the points of a triangle. Ecclefechan 

 old church is 2400 yards from Luce, Luce 2220 yards from 

 old Iloddom, and old Hoddom from Ecclefechan 3500 yards. 

 Immediately in front, a mile and a half distant, stands Knockhill, 

 on a gentle elevation overlooking the vale of Hoddom and away 

 down the course of the Annan to the Solway. The greater part 

 of the old churchyard, including the site of the old church, has 

 been ploughed for fifty or sixty years. There is a small cornei- 

 fenced off (round the Irving tomb) into which a number of old 

 tombstones have been dragged and thrown about in a very dis- 

 orderly fashion. The foundations of the old church as traced by 

 Mr Kennedy, farmer in Luce Mains, when ploughing the field, 

 shews the church to have been about 30 feet long, by 15 feet 

 Avide, and the west end about 50 feet from the east end of the. 

 Irving tomb. The site is indicated by a X on the 6 inch ordnance 

 survey. After the Reformation the parish of Luce, Hoddom, and 

 Ecclefechan were united into the present parish of Hoddom in 

 1609. The parish manse stands on the glebe. In the valuation 

 of 16G7 Luce is described as 



The fourtie shilling land of Xewpark 



The six merkland of Luce 



The lands of Luce pertaining to Jaffray Irving 



Kelheads rent received from Adam Cailik- ... 



The rest of Kelheads lands in Luce ... 



In the early part of the sixteenth century the lands of Luce 

 belonged to Lord Garlyle, and was sold to Jeffray Irving, who 

 purchased the Three Merkland of Luce from Lord Carlyle, anno 

 . . . and a charter of the lands was granted by Michael Lord 

 Carlyle in 1542. These lands were part of the lands now belong- 

 ing to Alexander Pearson, Esq. The Carlyles have left no 

 records behind them except a few tombstones in the old church- 

 yard to the memory of some of their descendants in the 18th 

 century. In 1823 there was a John Carlyle who was the owner 

 of one-eighth of Dornocktowu, who appears to have been a de- 

 scendant of the Carlyles of Luce. '* On 13th July, 1612, charter 



