National Park politics

Author and farmer Patrick Laurie on what Galloway actually means

The estuary of the River Nith is an internationally important winter feeding site for waders, geese and other wildfowl (Flickr / James Johnstone)

The Scottish Government wants Galloway to be designated as a National Park. The idea has caused tremendous excitement in the far southwest of Scotland, and it’s even made national news – but it’s also clear that Galloway doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s called Dumfries and Galloway now; a much larger bloc which was created in 1974 when Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Dumfriesshire were run together as a single entity. The first two make sense as Galloway, but Dumfriesshire is a different kettle of fish. It’s a richer, dryer and more lavish place altogether - their Norse and Saxon ancestry clashes badly against Galloway’s Irish pedigree, and the union is far more neatly explained by administrative simplicity than cultural cohesion.

The name Galloway actually means ‘strange Gaels’, probably in reference to an influx of Irish settlers who arrived here during the Dark Ages. It follows that the name was used by Scots to describe incomers who weren’t conventionally Scottish. Even today, powerful connections endure between Galloway and Ulster, and if Northern Ireland has always held itself slightly apart from the rest of that island, Galloway has been a stranger in Scotland for centuries.