Daer Water

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry

Daer Water, the principal head-stream of the Clyde, rising in the extreme S of the parish of Crawford and of the shire of Lanark, at 2000 feet above sea-level, on the NE slope of Gana Hill (2190 feet), within ¼ mile of the Dumfriesshire border and of a sub-affluent of the Annan. Thence it runs 10½ miles northward to a confluence with Powtrail Water, at a point 2¾ miles S of Elvanfoot; and their united waters thenceforward bear the name of the river Clyde. Traversing a dreary region of bleak mountains and moorish uplands, and joined by sixteen little affluents, it has a rapid, noisy, and frolicsome current; enjoys high repute as a trouting stream; and gives the title of Baron (cre. 1646) to the Earl of Selkirk.—Ord. Sur., sh. 15,1864.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer