CHAPTER LX VII 



THE DOON, GIRVAN, AND STINCHAR 



The Doon drains one hundred and twenty-six square miles, and 

 rises in tliose high hills on the borders of Kirkcudbrightshire whose 

 southern slopes send out the Dee and the Cree to the Solway. Its 

 head waters spring from Loch Enoch, a desolate, rock-bound loch 

 about 1700 feet above sea-level, which sends a considerable stream 

 into the head of Loch Doon, a fine sheet of water six miles in length, 

 and covering 1240 acres. From the foot of this loch the river 

 rushes through a very narrow, rocky outlet into Ness Glen, on which 

 of late years a good ladder has been placed, which fish ascend pretty 

 freely, passing through the loch into the Enoch tributary. They 

 are seldom caught in the loch, and perhaps a dozen each year would 

 fully represent the total take to the rod. Below Ness Glen the 

 Doon runs for about a mile througb meadow land, and passing 

 Dalmellington, it expands into Loch Bogton, a mile long and full of 

 pike ; from thence it has a run of sixteen miles until it falls into 

 the sea, two miles to the south of the mouth of the Ayr. Between the 

 embouchures of these two streams there are some fifteen or twenty 

 bag- and stake-nets working, much to the detriment of both rivers, 

 while in addition to this the Doon mouth is hard fished by net and 

 coble. 



The river is certainly capable of very great improvement, but 

 as matters are at present it is hardly worth calling a salmon river. 

 The waters of the loch could easily be stored up at a small cost, and 

 an artificial spate provided whenever necessary. If this were done, 

 if the nets were removed from between the mouths of the Doon and 

 the Ayr, and if the pollutions from collieries, ironworks, and 

 factories were suppressed, then there would be nothing to prevent 

 this river from becoming one of the best, if not actually the very 

 best, in the south-west of Scotland. In 1893, five hundred dead or 

 dying fish were removed from the river, poisoned by one discharge 

 of refuse from a pit of an iron company ! 



The chief proprietors are the Marquis of Aisla, the Duke of 

 Portland, and Mr. A. F. M'Adam. 



The river is quite an early one, which holds clean fish on the 

 opening day, the nth of February, though the main run of salmon 

 is in August, with grilse and sea trout in July. There is an early 

 spring run, and then in May, June, and July very few fish appear. 

 The spring fish rise well to the fly, the only lure allowed on the 



