The Water of Fleet is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

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 ...

flowing into Fleet Bay on 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 ...

. Its two

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainag ...

are the Big Water of Fleet, which begins around Loch Grannoch, and the Little Water of Fleet. The river flows through

Gatehouse of Fleet Gatehouse of Fleet ( sco, Gatehoose o Fleet gd, Taigh an Rathaid) is a town half in the civil parish of Girthon and half in the parish of Anwoth divided by the river Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, within the district council region of Dumfries and ...

before meeting the sea. The Water of Fleet rises on the slopes of

Cairnsmore of Fleet Cairnsmore of Fleet is an isolated mountain in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. The mountain forms an unafforested granite massif, whose highest point is about east of Newton Stewart. It is the highest of the "Solway Hills" sub-range, and the so ...

, a 710 m high hill that is designated as a National Nature Reserve. Lower down, the Fleet Valley contains the best examples of upland oakwood in

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 ...

, two of which (Killiegowan Wood and Carstramon Wood) are designated as

Special Areas of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

. The lower part of the area surrounding the Water of Fleet is designated as the Fleet Valley National Scenic Area, one of forty such areas in Scotland, which have been defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection from inappropriate development. The Fleet Valley national scenic area (NSA) covers 5854 ha in total, of which 5373 ha is on land, with a further 481 ha being marine (i.e. below low tide level). The coastal part of the NSA covers the shoreline, islands,

foreshore The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...

and sea area of Fleet Bay between Barlocco Isle and Ringdoo Point. Inland, the NSA includes the town of Gatehouse of Fleet, and land on both sides of River Fleet for about 10 km northwards. The area represents a microcosm of Scotland, with coastal scenery in the south, and a wilder landscape of hills and moors in the north. In between, there is slow transition through farmland and fields, with an abundance of drystane dykes and open

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

. The shoreline of Fleet Bay was a favourite location for artists from the Kirkcudbright Artists' Colony. The Big Water of Fleet is crossed by a twenty span viaduct, which was once a part of the

Portpatrick Railway The Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint RailwaysThe final word is in the plural. was a network of railway lines serving sparsely populated areas of south-west Scotland. The title appeared in 1885 when the previously independent Portpatrick Rai ...

route.

Cardoness Castle Cardoness Castle is a well-preserved 15th-century tower house just south west of Gatehouse of Fleet, in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Scotland. It was originally owned by the MacCullochs of Myreton. They abandoned the castle in t ...

is a well-preserved 15th-century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

just below

, close to the point at which the river begins to widen towards Fleet Bay. It was originally owned by the MacCullochs of Myreton. They abandoned the castle in the late 17th Century, following the

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

of Sir Godfrey McCulloch for the murder of a

Clan Gordon Clan Gordon is a Highland Scottish clan, historically one of the most powerful Scottish clans. The Gordon lands once spanned a large territory across the Highlands. Presently, Gordon is seated at Aboyne Castle, Aberdeenshire. The Chief of the ...

neighbour. It is now in the care of

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

, and is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

References

External links

Fleet Valley NSA Management Strategy
* {{authority control

Fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet *Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles *Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beach ...

National scenic areas of Scotland