The River Nith at Dumfries Scotland.

HUGH MC MILLAN
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The River Nith at Dumfries Scotland.
The River Nith at Dumfries Scotland.

Known, like its football club, as "Queen of the South", Dumfries is an ancient town with a long and turbulent history. Today it is by far the biggest town in south west Scotland; the administrative centre for Dumfries and Galloway; and the focus of a large rural hinterland.

Dumfries was founded as a Royal Burgh in 1186 on the east side of the lowest crossing point of the River Nith. The land beyond the Nith, known as Galloway, only securely became part of Scotland during Alexander II's reign in 1234. As a result Dumfries was very much a frontier town during its early years as a Royal Burgh. Partly as a result of this it grew rapidly both as a market town and as a port.

The first stone bridge over the Nith, Devorgilla Bridge, (or Old Bridge) named after Devorgilla, the mother of King John Balliol, was built here in 1432, possibly on the site of a wooden bridge built by Devorgilla in the 1260s.

It was rebuilt after flooding in 1620 and was shortened at its eastern end in about 1800. It is still used by pedestrians and is one of Scotland's oldest standing bridges. Most traffic over the Nith was diverted to the New Bridge or Buccleuch Bridge when it was completed in 1794. Since 1925 Dumfries also has a second road bridge, St Michael's Bridge, over the Nith, and there is also the rather fine Nith Suspension Bridge for pedestrians erected in 1875. Given the propensity of the River Nith for frequent and sometimes violent flooding, the main surprise is that the bridges that cross it at Dumfries have survived so well.

The River Nith is a river in South West Scotland.

The Nith rises in the Carsphairn hills of East Ayrshire, more precisely between Prickeny Hill and Enoch Hill, 7 km east of Dalmellington. For the majority of its course it flows in a generally southern direction through Dumfries and Galloway, before spilling into the Solway Firth at Ards point.

The territory through which the river flows is called Nithsdale

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Taken on: February 13, 2016
Sets appears in:   • Dumfries, Scotland.    • Bridges   
Groups appears in:   • Scotland    • Scotland in Picture   
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