Salt Pans in the Rhins of Galloway

On the coast a couple of miles north of the village of Port Logan and a mile noth-west of Logan House, reached by a country lane and through a yard busy with domesticated ducks and geese, is a little bay named Port Gill. It is an unattractive place for the casual tourist, being marshy and rocky and rather rubbish-strewn. It does, however, contain some intriguing stone-built ruins. Running north-south across the bay is a rubble-built pier, its southern end now demolished by the action of the sea. On the southern side of the bay is a roofless single-storey rectangular building and a stone-walled enclosure. Close inspection reveals the remains of two other buildings. A network of paths links the buildings and the pier.

Port Gill, showing the remains of the pier on the right of the picture and remains of buildings and an enclosure on the left.

Port Gill pier, buildings and enclosure as depicted on the late 19th century 25 inch to 1 mile ordnance survey map. Note that at that time two of the buildings still had roofs, while the middle building was unroofed. Note also the well from which the inhabitants would have drawn their water.

What were these structures for and when were they built? Documentary sources offer no definitive answers. The pier, buildings and enclosures are marked on 19^th century ordnance survey maps but their function is not noted. The Old and New Statistical Accounts of Kirkmaiden parish do not mention Port Gill. Early 19^th century valuation rolls and  census returns are similarly uninformative; the land was owned by the Laird of Logan but the only inhabitants were agricultural labourers. Modern sources are no more helpful. The pier is listed in Historic Environment Scotland’s Canmore database, but with no description or dates. Finally, the otherwise excellent local history books about the South Rhins make no mention of Port Gill or its ruins.

For a clue as to Port Gill’s possible history, we must go back to William Roy’s highly detailed Military Map of the Lowlands of Scotland, compiled between 1747 and 1755. This does not depict the pier, but does show buildings and an enclosure in roughly the same position as the modern ruins. The whole area is labelled, “Saltpans of Bay Gill”.

So was Port Gill the site of an 18^th century salt works? In this article I will look at the salt manufacturing industry in early modern Scotland and specifically at the evidence for salt works in the Rhins of Galloway. In doing so, I will attempt to solve the mystery of the Port Gill ruins.

The Scottish Salt Manufacturing Industry

Salt had been manufactured from sea water in Scotland since at least medieval times. In the 16^th and early 17^th centuries, salt was a major export commodity for Scotland, but foreign competition led to a concentration on the domestic market. Scottish salt was used for meat preservation, bacon and ham curing and cheese making, as well as a cooking and table condiment. Interestingly, it was never much used for fish curing, as its means of production affected the flavour of fish.

Salt played a significant role in the Act of Union that united England and Scotland in 1707. Scottish saltmasters, who were predominantly leading landowners, successfully argued that the Scottish salt industry would be ruined by free trade, as the market would be swamped by cheaper and better quality English salt, which mainly came from inland brine springs rather than the sea. A prohibitive tariff was placed on English salt, while Scottish salt was virtually untaxed. This fiscal advantage meant that Scottish manufacturers had a virtual monopoly of the domestic market (though salt for fish curing had to be imported from continental sources such as Portugal and English salt could be smuggled in).

As Scottish salt was produced by boiling seawater, saltworks, known as ‘Salt Pans’, after the large rectangular iron pans in which the water was boiled, were sited on the coast and near to sources of fuel. The main concentrations of salt pans were on the Firths of Forth and Tay and on the Ayrshire coast, all of which had extensive coal deposits. Indeed, saltworks and collieries often had the same owners, as the salt pans could use small pieces of coal (known as pancoal) that were not otherwise saleable. At the same time, small-scale saltworks could be set up anywhere along the coast, even in such isolated parts of the country as the Rhins of Galloway, using wood or peat as fuel and serving local markets.

In 1825, the tax relief on Scottish salt was abolished as part of broader moves towards the promotion of free trade. As the saltmasters had predicted, this rapidly led to the decline of the industry in Scotland as English salt rushed onto the market. Although some saltworks struggled on for a few years, by the end of the 19^th century salt pans in Scotland were a thing of the past.

How Salt Pans Worked

In 1748, William Brownrigg published a treatise entitled The Art of Making Common Salt, in which he described in detail the various processes by which salt could be manufactured. At the time, salt made from seawater was known as “white salt” and from Brownrigg’s treatise we could reconstruct an 18^th century white salt works. The “saltern” was a long rectangular stone-built building, sometimes divided into two parts. One part of the building would be a store (and sometimes accommodation for the salters), while the other contained one or two salt pans. As previously mentioned, these were shallow, flat-bottomed, rectangular iron vats, around 15 feet long, 12 feet wide and 15 inches deep, raised up from the ground on iron supports called “taplins”. Underneath the pan was a brick furnace, sealed in to ensure that smoke did not taint the salt. Smoke from the furnace exited via a chimney, and the steam from the boiling water was let out through wooden slats in the roof.

Seawater was collected in a pond near the shoreline and stored in a cistern, to allow impurities to settle. When needed, water was directed into the pans along a pipe or channel. Animal blood was added to the pan. This contained albumin, which extracted remaining impurities from the water, causing them to rise to the surface as a scum that could be skimmed off. The water was boiled until salt crystals started to appear (which took around five hours) and then more seawater was added and the boiling process continued. After four loads of water had been boiled off (which took around 24 hours), the salt could be shovelled out of the pan, dried and packed.

As Scottish seawater contains around 3% salt, 30 tons of water were needed to produce one ton of salt. Adverse weather could affect salt production; in particular, heavy rain could dilute the salinity of seawater to such an extent that it was not possible to economically extract salt from it. Consequently, salt manufacture tended to be a seasonal activity.

Salters and Saltmasters

Salt making wasn’t a labour-intensive business and a small salt works would have employed only a handful of people. In 18^th century Scotland, salters, like colliers, were bonded to their employers, meaning that they could not leave to work for anyone else. On the face of it, this seems like a form of serfdom, but Christopher Whatley points out that salters were relatively well paid and saltmasters had as much obligation to their salters as vice versa. As salt pans tended to be in isolated areas and salt-making was a round-the-clock activity, salters were provided with accommodation. As mentioned above, this could sometimes be in the same building as the salt pan itself – at least it was warm! Sometimes salters were also given some land for their own cultivation. A salter’s employer was often the local Laird, supplementing the estate income or providing himself with a ready supply of salt to prepare the meat from his farms for market.

Salt Pans in the Rhins of Galloway

Salt manufacture was never a widespread industry in Galloway, however there is evidence of saltworks in the Rhins in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. This evidence, in both documentary and archaeological terms is however sparse and partial and it is not possible to be sure exactly when or for how long any of the identified saltpans were operational. Ian Donnachie, in his Industrial Archaeology of Galloway, identifies five sites in the Rhins, marked on the map below.

Salt pan sites in the Rhins of Galloway (from Donnachie, 1971)

Salt Pan Bay, Aires, Kirkcolm Parish

Donnachie states that this site operated some time in the 18^th century, but all that remains today is the name by which the area is labelled on ordnance survey maps. It is an unprepossessing part of the coast, associated with the small, then independently owned estate of Aires, centred around Mains of Aires farmhouse in the west of Kirkcolm parish. There is nothing to see at the site on 19^th century ordnance survey maps or on modern aerial photographs. The use of the singular (Salt Pan) suggests that it was a very small scale operation. It is not mentioned on any 18^th century maps and therefore probably did not function for very long.

Salt Pans Bay, Galdenoch, Leswalt Parish

Although it isn’t saying much, this is both the best documented of the Rhins sites and the best preserved archaeologically. It was associated originally with Galdenoch castle, a forbidding 16^th century tower house sited a mile or so inland. Donnachie tells us that around 1640, Uchtred Agnew, Laird of Galdenoch, made a contract with Alexander Osborne to establish a saltworks, while the Laird gave Osborne an acre of land and liberty to cut peats for the furnace. The works were still functioning in 1791, consisting of “two dwelling houses and the salt pan” and a “pann house and large hole digged in the rock”. It lasted until the early 19^th century, producing “very excellent salt from sea-water”.

Galdenoch Castle, where Uchtred Agnew contracted Alexander Osborne to establish a saltworks in 1640.

The site is described, along with an outline plan, in the Canmore database. There are the remains of two rectangular buildings and another severely robbed structure nearer to the shoreline, along with two walled enclosures (one of which probably contained cultivation rigs) and a kiln. The larger building may have been the saltern, or pan house and may have been divided into two compartments, as Brownrigg described. The smaller building may have been a salter’s house. The enclosures and kiln suggest that the salters were growing crops on the land adjacent to the salt works. There may also have been a landing point, to facilitate transporting the salt by sea.

The ruins at Salt Pans Bay, Galdenoch. In the middle of the picture is a walled enclosure that apparently contains cultivation rigs. Beyond the enclosure are the remains of two adjacent buildings. The larger building to the left may have contained the salt pans.

 Salt Pans, Ardwell, Stoneykirk Parish

This site, in a bay north of Ardwell Bay and associated with Ardwell House, is named on the mid-19^th century first edition ordnance survey map, which depicts two small buildings placed next to each other with related enclosures, though the site was not by then active. Henry Blain, author of The Old Statistical Account of Stoneykirk, wrote in 1792 that salt had been manufactured in the parish “some years ago” but laconically added, “but the practice is now discontinued, probably, because it was found easier to smuggle that article from Ireland”. There is now no evidence of salt pans at the site, which is occupied by a private house.

Salt Pans, Chapel Rossan, Stoneykirk Parish

This may be the second site for salt manufacture that Blain stated had existed in Stoneykirk parish. It is the only site on the Eastern shore of the Rhins. Its only depiction is on John Ainslie’s 1782 map of the county of Wigton, suggesting that it had a short lifespan.

Salt Pans of Bay Gill, Kirkmaiden Parish???

So we return to our starting point, the ruins on the shore of Port Gill. Are these the “Salt Pans of Bay Gill” noted by William Roy? Well, Donnachie tells us that there were indeed salt pans associated with Logan House. Logan salt pan was mentioned in Andrew Symson’s 1684 A Large Description of Galloway as making good salt with peats instead of coals and in 1688 James Mitchell was given liberty to cut peats from Logan Moss, “of qwich moss one horse is able to keep the pan daily going”. Donnachie does not say where Logan salt pan was sited, but circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that it was situated at Port Gill. There is the mention on Roy’s map. The ruins closely resemble those at Galdenoch and other rural salt works elsewhere in Scotland. More tellingly, Logan Moss, where James Mitchell cut his peats, an area of marshland north of Logan House (now mainly plantation) is less than a mile east of Port Gill and is connected to it by a road, depicted on the first edition ordnance survey map.

A closer view of the ruins at Port Gill. In the foreground is a building with two compartments (note that it has been repaired at some time). Behind it is a walled enclosure. On the right hand side of the enclosure can be seen the remains of a second building. The scant remains of the third building are in the middle of the picture.

So I would suggest that the Port Gill ruins are most likely the remains of Logan salt pans. The pier is still a bit mysterious, as other saltworks do not have a dedicated pier (though Galdenoch salt pans may have had a landing stage) and there was a harbour at nearby Port Nessock (now Port Logan). However, the original 17^th century pier at Port Nessock was in ruins by the late 18^th century and the present harbour was not built until 1825. It may be that an 18^th century Laird of Logan felt that a small pier at Port Gill would assist the export of salt (and perhaps cured meat) from his estate and would be less exposed to storms than Port Nessock.

The remains of the pier that once stretched out over the bay.

Conclusion

Archaeological excavation of the ruins at Port Gill may confirm that they are indeed the remains of Logan salt pans, but that is unlikely to happen any time soon. The salt industry in the Rhins was small scale, seasonal and Galdenoch excepted, probably didn’t last long. Writing about Galloway, Donnachie concluded that “as an industry, and perhaps more as a rural craft, [salt manufacture] has left little to interest the industrial archaeologist, with the exception of rock-cut salt pans at the cliff-foot on lonely Galdenoch shore”. Well, if my theory about Port Gill is correct, I may at a stroke have doubled the number of remaining salt pan sites in the Rhins of Galloway!


Sources Used
 Canmore: the online catalogue to Scotland's archaeology, buildings, industrial and maritime heritage
Census returns and valuation rolls available at Scotland’s People

Old and New Statistical Accounts of Wigtonshire Parishes.

Roy Military Survey, John Ainslie's map of the county of Wigton and 19^th Century Ordnance Survey maps available from the National Library of Scotland Map Images 
Brownrigg W (1748)  The Art of Making Common Salt
 Donnachie I (1971) Industrial Archaeology of Galloway. Newton Abbott: David & Charles
Whatley C. A. (1987). The Scottish Salt Industry: An Economic and Social History 1570-1850. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press

Just Passing Through: Cattle Droving in the Rhins of Galloway

Most of us who have driven around the Rhins of Galloway are familiar with cattle droving. Many times I have rounded a bend in the road to be met by a leisurely herd of cows on their way to be milked, accompanied by a busy farmer and his dog. For as long as cattle have been domesticated, they have been driven on foot from place to place: from field to field, from winter pasture to summer grazing and from farm to market. Most of these journeys are brief, a few hundred yards at most. But for close to three hundred years, from the early 17^th century to the late 19^th century, cattle were driven hundreds of miles, from the extremities of Scotland, Wales and Ireland to the south of England, to meet ever growing demands for beef. The Dumfries and Galloway region played a major part in this trade, both as a producer of beef cattle and as the main route for cattle droving from Ireland. In this article I will consider the long-distance cattle droving trade and its place in the history of Galloway in general and the Rhins in particular.

Walking Beef to England: the Cattle Droving Trade

Cattle were not the only farm animals to be driven long distances; there were at various times and in different parts of the United Kingdom droving trades in horses, sheep and pigs and even geese and turkeys. However, we are particularly concerned here with the large scale export of beef cattle to England (there was never a droving trade in dairy cattle, which were better milked locally and their milk and cheese traded). The definitive work on cattle droving is A.R.B. Haldane’s The Drove Roads of Scotland, first published in 1952 and still in print, and I have drawn heavily on this fine source.

Cattle are well suited to long distance travel. They are strong, low-maintenance (needing just regular access to grass and water), climb hills readily and can ford or swim across rivers. As herd animals they broadly stick together and one man (or boy) could attend to fifty or sixty beasts. Given sufficient time they could comfortably manage the several hundred mile trip to the south of England at a pace of around 10 to 12 miles a day.

Scottish and Irish cattle could end up anywhere with a demand for beef, but there were two principal customers. The first was London, which grew exponentially from the middle of the 17^th century and hoovered up beef from all over the country. Cattle from the north were sometimes driven directly to London, but more often their initial destination was East Anglia, where they were sold at major markets such as St. Faith’s, near Norwich. The local farmers that purchased them fattened them up following their long journey before sending them to Smithfield and the other London meat markets. The second major consumer of beef was the Royal Navy; Britain was often at war during the period and salt beef was part of the Navy’s staple diet.

Cattle droving was a hard and often precarious business and few drovers were rich men. Some major Scottish landowners, who were also large-scale cattle breeders and dealers, employed their own drovers but the majority of drovers were self-employed. Drovers had of course to be as fit as their charges; a few rode ponies but most walked with the cattle. They needed to find the best route for the prevailing weather conditions and suitable places to rest for the night, with adequate grass and water; these were known as ‘stances’. While there were inns that catered for the droving trade, most drovers slept outside with their beasts, to save money and to prevent the animals from wandering off, or to guard against theft. A long-distance drove would normally comprise at least two hundred head and some droves contained more than a thousand beasts. The drover had to employ his assistants, which may have included a “topsman”, who rode ahead on a pony to seek the best route and the next night-time stance.

Droving was a risky business financially, for both the drover and the farmers whose cattle he was seeking to sell. Few drovers had large supplies of capital and the droving trade ran on credit. The drover obtained a letter of credit and a small amount of cash from a bank and used these to buy cattle. Sometimes he would travel from farm to farm buying up individual farmers’ stock, or he might deal with local landowners, who had previously acquired their tenants’ stock in lieu of rent. The drover would agree a price and would give the farmer a promissory note, which would be cashed (hopefully) when the drover returned from his trip to England. The price included the drover’s expenses (wages and living expenses for staff and sometimes toll charges and accommodation fees for beasts and men) and the drover sought to sell the stock at a profit when he reached the English markets.

Good money was made when things went well (a large drove could be worth close on a million pounds in today’s money) but if problems arose both drover and farmer suffered financial loss. Beasts could be lost to accidents, disease, theft or negligence by the drovers. Sometimes events could affect the English markets and the drover was unable to sell at a profit. Some drovers were less than canny or scrupulous in making deals. In such cases, the liability was in theory with the drover, as he had bought the stock from the farmers, but in practice the farmers also lost, as the drovers’ promissory notes could become worthless.

Despite the potential hardship that could ensue, Scottish and Irish cattle farmers had to regard the risks of droving as occupational hazards. Many cattle rearing areas were unsuitable for other forms of agriculture and there was limited demand for beef locally, so the farmers had to trust and rely on the droving trade. Many small tenant farmers paid their rents with the promissory notes obtained from the drovers. Among the farming community, drovers did not have a high reputation for either skill or honesty and bankruptcies occurred regularly. Elite drovers were however well regarded and farmers recognised their need for them. As Haldane pointed out, the trade could not have continued for three hundred years without drovers of skill, stamina and integrity.

Cattle Droving in Galloway and the Rhins

Galloway was a leading area for rearing beef cattle throughout the droving period and there is evidence of cattle being exported to England from Galloway from at least the early 17^th century. Dumfries Tryst (as cattle markets were called) was a major market for both local cattle and for those driven from the Highlands and from Ireland. The local Galloway breed was well regarded (at least among local farmers) as being hardy and for producing high-quality meat. Samuel Smith, author of the General View of the Agriculture of Galloway (1813) devoted no fewer than 10 pages to extolling the physical virtues of the black Galloway. It was however smaller in size than some competing breeds. Smith reckoned that at the time of his writing, 20,000 Galloways were exported to England each year. The Old Statistical Accounts, written in the 1790s, relate that black Galloway cattle were reared extensively throughout the Rhins, the large majority of beasts destined for the English markets. Droves would not however have begun in the Rhins but from the markets at Stranraer and Glenluce. Some names of Galloway drovers have come down to us; Samuel Smith mentions (approvingly) Messrs Smith, Corsons, McLellans and Hopes and mid-19^th century articles in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard mention long-distance droves being led by Messrs Jolly, Swan, Stroyan and McQueen.

A distinctive Belted Galloway. Most Galloway cattle were completely black or dun in colour, but the sub-breed of "Belties" may have resulted from a cross with a Dutch breed. Note the small size compared with modern breeds.

Irish Cattle and the Rhins

Galloway cattle had competition, at least for some of the period, from Irish beef cattle, which were similarly driven to England. Local commentators were understandably sniffy about the quality of Irish cattle, holding that their meat was inferior to the black Galloways’. They had to acknowledge, however, that Irish cattle were bigger than the Galloway. Some Galloway farmers reared Irish cattle rather than black Galloways, while others experimented (unsuccessfully) with improving the Galloway breed by crossing with Irish stock. But the majority of Irish cattle simply passed through Galloway, following drove routes from ports on the Rhins to Dumfries and on to England.

While some Irish cattle were shipped directly to England, many made the short sea crossing from Donaghadee or Newry to Portpatrick. The trade began in the early 17^th century and by the 1660s it has been estimated that up to 50,000 Irish cattle a year were travelling to England. This led to concerns in England and Scotland that the market could be saturated and in the late 1660s imports of Irish cattle were banned. The ban lasted until 1765, though as Gallovidians were adept at smuggling it was probably not total.

Following the repeal of the ban, cattle imports from Ireland became extensive. Portpatrick was again the main port of entry, its convenience enhanced by John Smeaton’s harbour, built in 1776. By 1790 there were six boats of 50 tons each based in Portpatrick that were devoted to the cattle trade, with 55,000 beasts (and 10,000 horses) imported over a five-year period. Other parts of the Rhins attempted to cash in on the trade also. Andrew McDouall, Laird of Logan, established Port Logan in the 1820s, with a new harbour and village, in an attempt to attract some of the cattle traffic.

The harbour at Port Logan was built in the 1820s, replacing an earlier pier that had fallen into ruins. Laird McDouall of Logan hoped to capitalise on the trade in Irish cattle, but Port Logan was not a success.

The Drove Routes of Galloway

Retracing the routes taken by the cattle drovers through Galloway is not straightforward. When droving became established in the early 1600s there were few if any roads in the region and for much of their journey the drovers would have found routes for themselves across the hills and moors. Some areas of Galloway were under cultivation and landowners naturally objected to herds of cattle trampling their crops, so specific drove roads (known as ‘raikes’) were marked out in some places, 50 to 100 feet wide with turf dykes on either side. A raike from Gretna to Annan was established in 1619 and another from Dumfries to New Galloway in 1697. In between, the general line of the drove routes can be traced by “joining the dots” between known cattle markets. This identifies a route that broadly follows the modern day A75, from Glenluce through Newton Stewart and Gatehouse of Fleet to Kelton Hill (now known as Rhonehouse, near Castle Douglas), which was a major market centre and then to Dumfries. An alternative route to Dumfries followed the present day A712 from Minigaff through New Galloway and Crocketford.

In the late 1700s the Military Road from Portpatrick to Carlisle was constructed, doubtless inspired by drove routes, and then the Mail Trust built the turnpike road that became the A75 from Stranraer to Dumfries. The drovers were not necessarily grateful for such roads and many avoided them if possible, believing that the hard surfaces were bad for their beasts’ feet (cattle wore metal shoes when walking on roads) and being reluctant to pay toll charges.

The specific route taken by Irish cattle from Portpatrick to their first stance at Glenluce is similarly speculative, but this is my suggestion. The droves would not have followed the Military Road, as this led through Stranraer, but would have taken a more direct route across the open country. After being unloaded from the boat (by the unceremonious means of being forced over the side and required to swim to shore) the herd would have gathered on Portpatrick Common, a field on the hillside to the south of the village (now the site of Galloway Point caravan park). They would then have probably been driven south east towards Port of Spittal, following the line of the present minor road past the caravan sites. They may have then borne east, heading over the low hills past Stoneykirk village to the flat land on which West Freugh aerodrome now stands. Their route may well have followed the runway north-east to head around the top of Torrs Warren (which would not have been crossed as it was used for rearing rabbits) and reach Luce Bay by Ringdoo Point. The beasts would have been driven along the sands to the Piltanton Burn, crossing it at Cuttybatty ford, before heading north towards Castle of Park and reaching a stance on the west bank of the Water of Luce, which was the site of a market. Next day they would have crossed the river and passed Glenluce village on their long tramp to Dumfries.

Possible route of the drove road for Irish Cattle from Portpatrick to their first Stance at Glenluce

The road from Portpatrick to Spittal marks the likely beginning of the drovers' long journey from Portpatrick to the east of England

The Decline of Cattle Droving

Cattle droving was ended by the 19^th century transport revolution. By the 1830s, steamships were big and fast enough to transport cattle reliably from Ireland to ports in England close to the markets. By the time of the New Statistical Account in 1839, cattle traffic through Portpatrick had declined from a peak of 20,000 beasts per year to around 1,000. Port Logan never properly got going as a commercial port, being too vulnerable to bad weather and established too late to compete with the steamships. Then the railways came along. The Portpatrick & Wigtownshire Joint railway opened in 1861 and eventually took over the long distance movement of cattle. Droving did not end immediately; droves continued during the early years of the railways. Some dealers baulked at the fares charged by the railway companies while others used a combination of drove and train, driving cattle from Dumfries to Carlisle, where they were loaded onto trains to Norwich. But by the end of the 19^th century, long-distance cattle droving was a lost art.

At the same time, agriculture on the Rhins was changing. By the time of the New Statistical Accounts, dairy farming with Ayrshire cattle was starting to replace the black Galloways, their small stature finally making them commercially unattractive. Many farms turned to dairying, with cheese making and pig keeping as further sources of income (pigs were fed on whey, a by-product of cheese production). Today, Dumfries and Galloway region has the greatest proportion of cattle in Scotland (24% of the total) and the Rhins has one of the highest densities of cattle in the country, with a high proportion of dairy farms. Both black Galloways and Ayrshires are now “heritage” breeds, the large majority of cattle on the Rhins today being huge modern breeds such as Limousin and Holstein Friesians.

If cattle droving is thought of at all, it tends to be regarded as a romantic notion, out of the pages of Sir Walter Scott. It is easy to forget that for close on three hundred years, the livelihood of thousands of farmers and the economy of much of Scotland depended on the skills and hardiness of cattle drovers. As an anonymous commentator put it in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard in 1844, “We wish these public-spirited men success in their precarious and laborious trade, for without them what would the Dumfries-shire and Galloway farmer do?”

Sources Used

Articles from The Dumfries and Galloway Standard available at the British Newspaper Archive.

Old and New Statistical Accounts of Wigtonshire Parishes.

Roy Military Survey and 19^th Century Ordnance Survey maps available from the National Library of Scotland Map Images  
Agriculture Land Use in Scotland: Cattle. Scottish Government. 

Haldane ARB (1952/2008) The Drove Roads of Scotland. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd.

Koufolpoulos A (2004) The Cattle Trades of Scotland 1603-1745. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.

McCullough A (2000) Galloway: A Land Apart. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd.
Smith S (1813) General View of the Agriculture of Wigtonshire. Google ebook.