Cummertrees

Cummertrees is a coastal village and parish and name of a Civil Parish in Dumfriesshire within the District Council Region of Dumfries and Galloway , Scotland.

It lies about a mile inland, on the Pow Water, twelve miles from Dumfries, and three from Annan in the strath of Annandale.

See Cummertrees Civil Parish map at : http://maps.nls.uk/atlas/thomson/555.html

Etymology

The meaning of Cummertrees is suggested as being 'confluence at the thorn or brambles' from the Gaelic 'Comar dreas'.

Cummertrees is rural, primarily residential village; the parish includes Powfoot and Trailtrow and is bounded by St Mungo and Hoddom, Annan, the Solway Firth, and Ruthwell and Dalton. A Public hall was erected at Cummertrees in 1893. The river Annan is at the northern boundary. It has a wide area of level sand swept by the Solway 'bore' which can move at around ten miles an hour and can often be heard throughout the parish. The seaboard is low and sandy and features in Walter Scott's novel Redgauntlet. The ground rises a little inland, to 350 feet on Repentance Hill.

The local geology is mainly Devonian, with old limestone workings at Kelhead and some sandstone quarries.

Cummertrees railway station was opened in 1848 by the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway, which then became part of the Glasgow and South Western Railway. It was closed by the British Railways Board in 1955. The fine station building survives as a private residence.

In a field called Bruce's Acres, at Broom Farm, Robert Bruce fought and lost a skirmish against the Southron (English).

Historically, the main landowner has been the Marquess of Queensberry.

Cummertrees parish includes some notable buildings, Hoddam Castle, Kinmount and Murraythwaite.

The Church

The church was founded by Robert Bruce and has been much rebuilt and enlarged.

Kinmount House

Kinmount House was the seat of the Marquesses of Queensberry, described by Groome in 1903 as a beautiful edifice, built in the early part of the 19th century at a cost of £40,000, and surrounded by fine pleasure grounds.

Hoddom Castle

Hoddom Castle, the old Maxwell fortalice, in the Civil Parish of Cummertrees, was once on the Scottish front line in its defences against England.

Two drawings of Hoddom Castle are in The Antiquities of Scotland. Second Volume. by Francis Grose.

Gallery

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  The parish church and lychgate.

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  Memorial to Lord Francis Douglas in Cummertrees Parish Church.

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  The Douglas family Mausoleum at the Parish Church.

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  Hoddom Castle

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  The old Cummertrees railway station.

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  Seaside-style holiday houses in Cummertrees's Quensberry Terrace

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  Holiday apartments at Agnes Hill.

Notable residents

• Lady Florence Dixie (1855-1905), travel writer, war correspondent, and feminist, a daughter of the 8th Marquess of Queensberry, was born and lived much of her later life on the Kinmount estate at Glenstewart House after her husband lost his family seat through gambling. She had married Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie, 11th Baronet (1851-1924), known as "Sir A.B.C.D."

• Lord Francis Douglas (1847 – 14 July 1865) was a British mountaineer born in Cummertrees. After sharing in the first ascent of the Matterhorn, he died in a fall on the way down from the summit.

References

Sources

• Groome, Francis H. (1903). Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland. London : Caxton Publishing Company.
• Johnston, J. B. (1903). Place-names of Scotland. Edinburgh : David Douglas.