St. Conal. 23 



that the httle hamlet (long smce swept away) sat at the foot of 

 the crag Carco Kill. Now Kill always denotes the cell or church 

 of some Celtic Saint, e.g., Kilmarnock, Kilmartin, Kilmacolm. 

 The name of the burn which runs past the crag is the Kill Burn. 

 In later times a religious house or monastery stood there. It 

 may ha\e been dedicated to St. Conal. This would account for 

 the name. In front of the Orchard House, not far from Gannel 

 Craig, sits a rock basin, which is considered by some to have 

 been an early Christian font. It may have been so, but it 

 appears much more likely from its size and general appearance 

 to have been the socket of a Celtic cross. The same may be said 

 of the stone font which has now found a resting-place within 

 Kirkconnel Parish Church. On the side of this latter Celtic 

 tracery can still be observed. 



Smyson, who Avrote his large "History of Galloway" in 

 1684, has left us a very interesting though short account of our 

 Saint. He says : — " Beginning at the head of the river (the 

 Xith) the first parish is that of Kirkconnel, so denominated from 

 Sanctus Convallus, who lived in a cell by the vestiges of its 

 foundation, yet perceptible hard by the fountain he did usually 

 drink of called ' fons convalli,' or St. Conall's well at the foot 

 of the hill where Kirkconnel Church is situate." 



I have carefully searched the whole of the foot of the hill 

 for the vestiges of the Saint's cell, but in vain. Probably when 

 the craze for building stone walls and dykes began these founda- 

 tions would be razed for that purpose. The well, however, still 

 continues to send forth its pure waters as of old. Mr Sharp, 

 the present tenant of the Vennel, lately placed a small stone 

 basin in the well, and so has made the place take on something 

 of what its ancient appearance must have been. This spring 

 bubbles forth at the foot of the hill opposite the old church. 



The site of St. Conal 's first church would probably be at 

 what is now termed the " Auld Kirkyaird," at the mouth of the 

 romantic Glen Aymer. Sanquhar Church would probably be 

 placed where its successor is standing to-day. Dr Simpson con- 

 jectures that the church at the west end of Sanquhar (on the site 

 occupied by the present Parish Church) took its rise in Celtic 

 times. It stands in the neighbourhood of the ancient Celtic 

 fortification on Broomfield, and it mav be that here was the first 



