Kirkpatrick Durham (Scottish Gaelic: Cill Phàdraig) is a village and

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

in the historical county of

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative county ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

, south-west

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It is located north of

Castle Douglas Castle Douglas ( gd, Caisteal Dhùghlais) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the lieutenancy area of Kirkcudbrightshire, in the eastern part of Galloway, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet. It is in the ...

History

An old church dedicated to

St Patrick Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...

gives the first element of the name: Kirk Patrick. The name Durham indicates barren land and distinguishes the village from another Kirkpatrick in the area. The village lay in the parish of Kilpatrick and was developed from 1785 by Rev David Lamont on his own ground and named Kirkpatrick Durham operating as a

handloom A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...

weaving centre. The present church was built in 1850 by

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

-based architect

Walter Newall Walter Newall (3 April 1780 – 25 December 1863) was a Scottish architect and civil engineer, born at Doubledyke in the parish of New Abbey in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. He was the leading architect in the Dumfries a ...

.Colvin, Howard, (1978) ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840'', John Murray, pp.697-699

Notable residents

* William MacMorine born here in 1756. Served as

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland, minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week i ...

in 1812. *

David Lamont Colin David Lamont (born 24 August 1953) is an Australian politician and was a member of the second Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, elected to the multi-member single constituency Assembly for the Labor Party in 1992. Lamont ...

was minister of the parish from 1774 to 1837 and served as

in 1822.Fasti Ecclesiastae Scoticana by Hew Scott * In the 19th century the minister was nominally the George Duncan. Isabelle Wight Duncan was his wife and mother to nine of their children. In 1860 she published a book that went up against ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

''. Her book reconciled the emerging geological discoveries with the stories of

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

. * John Gerrond (1765-1832) the self-styled "Galloway Poet", was born at Gateside of Bar in Kirkpatrick Durham. His works include ''Poems on Several Occasions, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect'' (1802), ''The Poetical and Prose Works of John Gerrond'' (1812), and ''The New Poetical Works of John Gerrond, the Galloway Poet'' (1818

He died in the cholera epidemic in Dumfries in 1832.

References

* http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/DunnJean.324.shtml Villages in Dumfries and Galloway Parishes in Dumfries and Galloway {{DumfriesGalloway-geo-stub