20 St. Conal. 



is honoured as the second apostle of that great city. His 

 religious work lay south of the Clyde, although for a little he 

 appears to have been engaged in Dalriada. Several churches 

 were erected under his invocation, including one at Eastwood, 

 which existed down to a comparatively late period. He is 

 venerated as the Patron of Inchennan, where his relics were pre- 

 served up to (at least) the time of Boece. " He was also," says 

 Cardinal Moran, "venerated at Cumnock and Ochiltree." 



Whether this is the same person as our patron saint is 

 doubtful. Nithsdale appears to be far too "out-of-the-way " a 

 place for the residence of the Archdeacon of Glasgow. Besides 

 this Saint Connal is said to have died at Inchennan in 612 a.d., 

 and his grave is still pointed out there. Now, the St. Conal of 

 Upper Nithsdale is said to be buried in Kirkconnel. Mr Robert- 

 son in his " History of Cumnock " devotes a chapter to St. 

 Conal, and makes out that the patron of Cumnock and the patron 

 of Inchennan were two different persons. We have therefore to 

 fall back on tradition regarding the saint of Upper Nithsdale. In 

 one particular his history agrees with that of his Inchennan name- 

 sake, viz., that he came from Ireland. An old tale is still told 

 how this saint, standing one day by the side of the sea in his 

 native land, wished that he could go over to Scotland to do his 

 Master's work. "Instantly," .says the tradition, "the stone on 

 which he was standing slipped into the sea, and in a short time he 

 found himself wafted, on his strange support, over to the Scottish 

 shore." On arriving there he made his way to Upper Nithsdale, 

 where he taught until his death. This tale, doubtless, is one of 

 those which arose in the dark ages which preceded the Reforma- 

 tion, though it is possible that under its strange appearance there 

 is a grain of truth. 



I recently, however, received another account of St. Conal's 

 coming to Upper Nithsdale, one which I think is much more 

 likely to be correct than the other. This legend was supplied to 

 my informant by a priest of the Roman Catholic Church who 

 had access to many old Scottish MSS. which were taken from 

 our land at the time of the Reformation and stored in the colleges 

 on the Continent. By this it is said that when St. Mungo was 

 forced to leave Glasgow by the King of the Picts, Morken, he 

 fled by way of Nithsdale. When he reached this part his 



