182 Topography of Dumfries. 



— the hill where now stands St. Mary's Church. Another 

 chapel would appear to have been an early foundation, the 

 Chapel of Our Lady, familiarly known, to distinguish it from 

 the Chapel at Castledykes and the Chapel in St. Michael's, 

 also dedicated to the Virg-in, as the " Chapel of the Willies " 

 or Willows, and, after the Reformation as " Rig's Chapel," 

 from its proprietor. It stood near the corner of Bank Street 

 and Irish Street, north of the former and west of the latter. 

 Its name sufficiently indicates the proximity of the river, 

 willows being planted to preserve with their binding roots 

 the river bank. The Chapel lay on one of the principal roads 

 into the burgh, and it may be noted that all the other chapels 

 were similarly situated upon a main approach. 



Thus the Chapel at Castledykes lay on the road from 

 the south, St. Christopher's Chapel on the road from the 

 east, and the Chapel of the Willies by the ford from Galloway. 

 The site of the Chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury, gifted 

 to Kelso by William the Lion, has not been determined. It 

 seems to have disappeared before the beginning of the i6th 

 century. On the Ordnance Survey Map of 1855 its position 

 is marked as being between the High Street and South 

 Queensberry Street, a site claimed also by others for a 

 Deanery. But there is no evidence that either chapel or 

 deanery ever stood there. On the other hand, the name 

 Chapel Hill is given in the i6th century to the elevation at 

 Chapel Street, and this can only mean that a chapel once 

 stood there. A house called St. Gregory's House,'*^ which 

 formed an endowment for the altar of the same saint in St. 

 Michael's Church, and a cross called St. George's Cross^®* 

 were both on the Chapelhill, while the School of Dumfries was 

 near the High Street end. Chapel Street, commonly known 

 as the Rattenraw, is now one of the meanest streets in the 

 town, but these names show that it had importance and 

 honour in its day. We have, then, a chapel without a site 

 and the site of a chapel without a chapel. The temptation 

 to unite them is great. This chapel stood on the entrance 

 to the town from the north-east. We may also note that the 

 Church of the Grey Friars was on the road, " passing oute 

 to poliwaddum callit the Staikfurd," as the charter of 15th 



