Kirkpatrick Irongray
Krkpatrick Irongray is a parish in Nithsdale in north-eastern Kirkcudbrightshire adjacent to the border with Dumfriesshire. It contains Shawhead, seven miles west of Dumfries.
It is bounded to the north by Holywood in Dumfriesshire, to the south-east by Terregles, to the south by Lochrutton, to the south-west by Urr and to the west by Kirkpatrick Durham. Its utmost length, from east to west, is 8¼ miles; its breadth, from north to south, varies between ½ mile and 4⅝ miles; and its area is 13,710½ acres, of which 36 are water.
The Old Water of Cluden, from a point two miles below its source, traverses the interior, first 3⅔ miles east-south-eastward, next 2½ miles northward, till ¼ mile below the beautiful Routing Bridge it falls into Cairn Water which traces two miles of the Holywood border and, as the Cluden Water, their united stream continues 4⅛ miles east-south-eastward along the Holywood border on its way to the River Nith. Along the Cluden the surface declines to just below 100 feet above sea-level, and thence rises westward to 787 feet near Upper Riddingshill, 1,286 on Bishop's Forest, and 1,305 on Glenbennan Hill.
