Galloway: A Land Apart

'Not men but brute beasts' was the description given to the fighting men drawn from the remote but once politically important region of Galloway that straddles the historic crossroads between England, Scotland and Ireland. Ruled by a dynasty of powerful hereditary lords who dominated the west and played a key role in the traditional rivalries between the Scottish and English kings, it had its own distinct history - quite separate from the rest of Scotland - and even today local people pride themselves on being Gallovidians. Traditionally described as extending from 'the Brigend of Dumfries' to 'the Braes of Glenapp', it stretches from the River Nith as far as the western seaboard and includes the former counties of Kirkcudbright and Wigtown.Galloway was the cradle of Scottish Christianity, and an early missionary was St. Ninian, who established a religious centre at Whithorn long before St. Columba was preaching the gospel to the Scots. In the following centuries it became a province of Northumbria, and a target for Viking settlement, eventually gaining effective independence under its powerful native lords. It was one of the principal battlegrounds in the Wars of Independence, and the main power base of the Black Douglases, who ruled it for nearly a century from their stronghold at Threave. Later it became a bastion of the Reformation and the Convenanters, and, in more peaceful times, was at the forefront of agricultural improvement.Andrew McCulloch's book is the first comprehensive history of the region to be published in more than a century and reflects the considerable amount of groundwork which has recently been concentrated on Galloway's past. The product of thorough research, it exposes a number of long-held misconceptions and is a compelling and colourful account of this fascinating part of Scotland.