Kells, a parish in Glenkens district, Kirkcudbrightshire, containing the royal burgh of New Galloway. It is bounded NW and N by Carsphairn, E by Dairy, Balmaclellan, and Parton, S by Balrnaghie, and SW and W by Girthon and Minnigaff. Its utmost length, from NW to SE, is 15½ miles; its breadth varies between 1| and 9 1/8 miles; and its area is 49,376¼ acres, of which 794¾ are water. The Water of ken winds 14fb. miles south-south-eastward along all the eastern boundary, broadening to 3 1/3 furlongs in Loch Ken, below which it joins the Dee; and the Dee itself, from ½ mile below its efflux from Loch Dee, flows 18 ¼ miles east-south-eastward along the south-western and southern border, and traverses triangular Stroan Loch (4 x 2 2/3 furl.; 225 feet). Pulmaddy Burn runs 6 5/8 miles east-by-southward along the northern boundary to the Ken, whose principal affluent from the interior is Pulharrow Burn, running 5 5/8 miles east-south-eastward out of Loch Harrow (3 x 1 1/3 furl.; 850 feet). Two other lakes, communicating with Pulharrow Burn, are Lochs Dungeon (6x2 furl.; 1025 feet) and Minnoch (2 x 1 1/3 furl.; 870 feet). The surface is everywhere hilly or mountainous, sinking to close on 100 feet above sea-level at the SE corner of the parish, where the Ken falls into the Dee, and thence rising north-westward to 1066 at Cairn Edward, 1616 at Cairnsmore or Blackcraig of Dee, 1248 at Bennan, 2446 at Meikle Millyea, 2350 at Millfire, and 2668 at Corserine-heathy summits these of the Rhynns of Kells that command a magnificent view. The entire tract along the Ken is eminently beautiful, exhibiting in its upper parts a reach of narrow vale, flanked and overlooked by grassy or wooded slopes, and by romantic ravines and hills, and expanding in its lower part, especially along Loch Ken, into a fertile alluvial flat, screened and overhung by parks and verdant uplands. Much of the interior, to the S of the Rhynns, is supposed to have been a hunting-ground, first of the Lords of Galloway, afterwards of the Kings of Scotland. It retains some stunted remains of an ancient and very large forest, and includes the two farms of Upper and Nether Forest, patches of wood called the King's Forest, and a large meadow, the King's Holm. Granite is a predominant rock; excellent slates were formerly quarried in the NE; iron ore abounds in one locality; and lead ore occurs on Glenlee and Kenmure estates, and was formerly mined. The soil of the alluvial tract along the Ken is so rich, that, in the days prior to modern agricultural improvement, it bore crops for twenty-five successive years without other manure than the Ken's natural deposits, but elsewhere the soil is exceedingly various, and graduates towards the hills and mountains into worthless moor or bare rock. The chief antiquities are a large rocking stone on one of the heights of the Rhynns, vestiges of a defensive wall extending southward through great part of the parish, and a stone in the churchyard to the memory of Adam M'Whan, who was shot for his adherence to the Covenant in 1685. Natives were Thomas Gordon (1690-1750), political writer; Robert Heron (1764-1807), a calamitous author; and the Rev. William Gillespie (1776-1825), a minor poet and minister of Kells from 1801 till his death. Mansions, noticed separately, are Kenmure Castle, Glenlee, Ballingear, Garroch, Stranfasket, and Knocknalling; and 4 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 4 of between £100 and £500, 2 of from £50 to £100, and 13 of from £20 to £50. Kells is in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright and synod of Galloway; the living is worth £340. The parish church, ½ mile N by W of New Galloway, is a neat stone building of 1822, with a square tower and 560 sittings; and Kells public school, with accommodation for 193 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 123. and a grant of £115, 15s. Valuation (1860) £6831, (1883) £10,253, 12s. 6d. Pop. (1801) 771, (1831) 1128, (1861) 1170, (1871) 1007, (1881) 970.—Ord. Sur., shs. 9, 8, 5, 1857-63.
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