In Ireland some Vikings formed mercenary armies of native Irish who were known collectively as the Gall-Ghaidhil, 'foreign, Norse Gaelic-speakers.' About the year 1000, many of them moved across the Irish Sea and North Channel to settle in Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbright, and to a lesser extent in Dumfriesshire, Cumbria, and the Isle of Man. The word Galloway is adopted from the name Gall-Ghaidhil. The presence of this people in the Rhins is shown by names like Kirkmaiden, already mentioned. Kirk- was the Norse equivalent of Gaelic Kil-, 'church,' but the place-name preserved Gaelic word-order, together with the name of a Gaelic saint. In other words, it preserves both Norse and Gaelic features.

Purely Gaelic names are very common. Drummore, for instance, means 'big ridge' and refers to the protruding hill on which High Drummore farm now stands. Creechan means 'the high, windy top of a hill.' Auchness is 'meadow where horses graze,' Drumantrae 'ridge on the shore,' Clachanmore 'big kirkton,' Clayshant 'holy, enchanted cemetery.'

There may have been a Norse earldom in Galloway. By 1034 however there was a king of the Gall-Ghaidhil named Suibhne. In Irish records, a later succession - Fergus (d.1161), his sons Uchtred (d.1173) and Gilbert (d.1185), Uchtred's son Roland (d.1199), and his grandson Alan (d.1234) - are sometimes styled 'kings' of the Gall-Ghaidhil. Elsewhere their title is 'Lord' of Galloway.

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After 1066 Norman power in England depended to a degree on the motte-and-bailey castles which they erected - a tower, the motte, constructed from wood and erected on an artificial earthen mound, often with an additional fenced enclosure, the bailey, at a slightly lower level. Such castles were relatively easy to build. During the period of Fergus and his successors, their use spread to Galloway, indeed to southern Scotland as a whole. Good examples are to be found in Balgreggan Motte, Sandhead, and Ardwell Motte in the grounds of Ardwell House. Less striking, but still interesting, are the mottes at Castle Clanyard and High Drummore farms.

Strong, but relatively unorganized, elements of monasticism were to be found in the old Celtic church foundations. Fergus and Roland established abbeys for monks belonging to the new, more highly organized, continental orders. None is in the southern Rhins, but two, Soulseat and Glenluce, were nearby, and their influence extended over a wide area. The lands of Culmick, Culmore, and Culgroat, all in Stoneykirk parish, probably belonged to Soulseat, to which in 1393 the parish church of Kirkmaiden was also annexed.

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Later in the Middle Ages and during the early modern period, many of the local lairds (the families principally of McDouall, Gordon, McCulloch, and Adair) erected lightly fortified Tower Houses, buildings strong enough for protection against local disturbances, but also providing more space and comfort than the earlier mottes. Those at Killumpha and Auchness, are still in use, albeit with later additions and modernisations. The remains of others are to be seen at Castle Clanyard, in Logan Botanic Gardens, and at Killaser Castle, near Ardwell. During the eighteenth century, some were replaced by elegant laird's houses such as Logan House and Ardwell House, both still in occupation.

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So far as Scotland is concerned, the Reformation began in 1560 and reached something like its final, predominantly Presbyterian, form in 1690. The beginnings were relatively peaceful. Presbyteries were established. The abbeys were allowed to wither away and, for the most part, their lands passed into the hands of local noblemen or lairds.

The National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 showed the growing rift between Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and also between Church and State. The majority of Wigtownshire people held to the Covenants. Some took part in the Whiggamore Raid of 1648, which led to Oliver Cromwell's occupation of Edinburgh and subsequent domination of Scotland.

After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, hostilities broke out between the more committed Covenanters and the forces of government. Patrick McDouall of Freugh was on the defeated side at Bothwell Brig (1679). His lands of Freugh and his house, Balgreggan, were confiscated, and granted to the leading soldier on the side of government, John Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards Viscount Dundee - to his supporters 'Bonnie Dundee,' to his enemies 'Bluidy Clavers.' A year later Claverhouse was made Sheriff of Wigtown, with instructions to root out the Covenanters.

The arrival of William of Orange in 1688, and the death of Claverhouse at the moment of victory at Killiecrankie (1689) led to the full establishment of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1690.

One consequence of the Reformation was the removal of Kirkmaiden parish church from its hallowed traditional site on the Kirk Burn above Portankill, 'church landing place,' on Luce Bay to the modern hamlet of Kirkmaiden, some five miles to the north. The parishioners petitioned for this move in 1638, the year of the National Covenant, and for this reason the new church is often called Kirk Covenant. A little later, the medieval parishes of Kirkmadrine (or Toskarton) and Clayshant were combined to form the modern parish of Stoneykirk.

An incidental consequence of the Reformation was the fairly rapid disappearance of Gaelic as the local spoken language. It was associated with the pre-Reformation order and also came to seem out of touch with the world which began to appear in the course of the seventeenth century.

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In theory the land as a whole belonged to the king, but in practice most came under the authority of secular lairds or the church. In most matters they exercised the power of the judiciary. Court Hill, for instance, near Logan House, was where the McDouall lairds of Logan held an open-air court for the tenants of their barony of Logan. Pillory Hill is nearby.

The lairds lived in stone-built houses, the monks in abbeys, but most others lived in thatched 'cley-biggins' (clay-huts) on 'ferme-touns' (communal farms), which paid rent to the landlord in kind or in money. Short leases were the norm. Crops were grown in the 'in-field' or 'fey,' using 'run-rig' tenure, by which strips of land were assigned on an annual basis to individual tenants. The 'outfield' was mostly given over to cattle. Walls or fences were few. In summer the cattle might be moved further off to hill-pastures ('shielings'), allowing crops to ripen undisturbed. Crops were ground at the local water mill. Drummore Mill, Logan Mill and Ardwell Mill all began in this way.

Ploughing was done with a team of bullocks. Estate blacksmiths served the needs both of lairds and of tenant farming communities. For the most part, forges were on higher ground to allow the blacksmith to take advantage of the wind to provide draught for their furnaces. The name Balgowan, 'blacksmith's steading,' indicates where the Logan blacksmith lived and worked. (The modern farm is on a small hill.) Challoch means 'a smith's forge;' the original forge was on the hill where the modern farm stands. If times were good, the tenants were economically self-sufficient at subsistence level, but a bad harvest meant real hardship, even famine.

Fishing for herring and salmon was also important. Port Logan began as a fishing settlement. Drummore has a double origin - in the ferme-toun beside the motte, from which the farms of High and Low Drummore later developed, and in the fishing settlement now represented by Shore Street. Sandhead is aligned on Balgreggan Motte, but it is close to the shore. Here too fishing was probably once an important occupation.

There was also a certain amount of shipping activity. The Lords or Kings of Galloway maintained a fleet of war-galleys, some at least of which must have been based on the Southern Rhins. In the later Middle Ages and afterwards trading was carried out by small vessels called 'crayars' or 'craars.' Such vessels anchored, or were beached, at Crawar Bay, just south of Drummore.

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With thanks to Prof. Jack MacQueen for text