Kirkcudbrightshire

Kirkcudbrightshire ( kur-KOO-bree-shər), also known as the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, is one of the historic counties of Scotland, located in the southwest of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire functioned as an administrative county for local government purposes. Since then, its territory has formed part of the Dumfries and Galloway council area. The name continues to be used for certain ceremonial and legal purposes: it remains a registration county for land registration, and from 1975 to 1996 a lower-tier district known as the Stewartry covered most of the historic county. The same boundaries are still used today for the lieutenancy area of the Stewartry, and the Dumfries and Galloway Council maintains a Stewartry area committee. Historically, Kirkcudbrightshire formed the eastern portion of the medieval Lordship of Galloway, which retained a measure of autonomy until its full incorporation into the Kingdom of Scotland during the 13th century. In 1369, the area east of the River Cree was placed under the jurisdiction of a steward based in Kirkcudbright, from which it derived the name "Stewartry of Kirkcudbright." The remainder of Galloway was administered by a sheriff seated in Wigtown, giving rise to the county of Wigtownshire. Kirkcudbrightshire was occasionally referred to as "East Galloway." The county is bounded to the north by Ayrshire, to the west by Wigtownshire, to the south by the Irish Sea and the Solway Firth, and to the east by Dumfriesshire. Its county town is Kirkcudbright.