Urr Water or River Urr ('' arc. River Orr'') is a river in which flows through the counties of Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbrightshire in southwest
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 ...
.
Course
Entirely within
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 ...
, the Urr Water originates at
Loch Urr
''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots language, Scots and Irish language, Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is Cognate, cognate with the Manx language, Manx lough, Cornish language, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh language, Welsh w ...
and flows for thirty-five miles southwards past Corsock,
Glenlair
Glenlair, near the village of Corsock in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire, in Dumfries and Galloway, was the home of the physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879). The original structure was designed for Maxwell's father by Walter N ...
, Auchendolly, Bridge of Urr, Haugh of Urr, and close to
Dalbeattie
Dalbeattie (, sco, Dawbeattie, gd, Dail Bheithe meaning 'haugh of the birch' or ''Dail'' ''bhàite'' 'drowned (''i.e.'' liable to flood) haugh') is a town in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Dalbea ...
, via Palnackie to the
Solway Firth
The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in ...
Kippford
Kippford (; otherwise Scaur) Gazetteer for Scotland is a small village along the firth
Firth is a word in the English and Scots languages used to denote various coastal waters in the United Kingdom, predominantly within Scotland. In the Northern Isles, it more usually refers to a smaller inlet. It is linguistically cognate to ''fj ...
where the Urr Water reaches the sea; the only other coastal settlement of any size is Rockcliffe. The principal settlement on the river is
Dalbeattie
Dalbeattie (, sco, Dawbeattie, gd, Dail Bheithe meaning 'haugh of the birch' or ''Dail'' ''bhàite'' 'drowned (''i.e.'' liable to flood) haugh') is a town in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Dalbea ...
. The river is noted for
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...
fishing.
Etymology
The name 'Urr' is from
Cumbric
Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...
''or'' 'a border, boundary, limit'.
Gallery
;Urr Water
File:Urr Water upstream.jpg, Urr Water upstream, 2007 - View from old Ramhill bridge near
Haugh of Urr
Haugh of Urr (), is a village in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is approximately NNW of Dalbeattie, NE of Castle Douglas, west of Dumfries and east of Kirkcudbright.
Description
The vil ...
File:Down the Urr Water from Palnackie Harbour - geograph.org.uk - 70094.jpg, Urr Water near
Palnackie
Palnackie is a village in the parish of Buittle in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council ...
, 2005
;Urr Estuary
File:Yachts moored in Urr Water estuary (Rough Firth) - geograph.org.uk - 14421.jpg, Yachts moored in Urr Water estuary, ( Rough Firth, near