The Carse

Blipper greengirl was at Carsethorn yesterday.


During the late 1700s and early 1800s there was a very high level of emigration to the American and Australian Colonies and newspaper advertisements show emigrant ships sailing regularly from Carsethorn. Carsethorn was a very important harbour for my home town of Dumfries.  In 1775 the ''Lovely Nelly'', Captained by William Sheridan, took 82 emigrants to Lot 59 on Prince Edward Island. The reason for the families going was given as being 'to get more bread' - in Scotland they were almost destitute.    Often emigrants would stay the night before their embarkation at the Steam Boat Inn.
A rather grimmer export trade emerged with the transportation of convicts to Australia. They were marched down from Dumfries and housed in the barracks (later a warehouse) at the river's edge. The whitewashed building remains. 


A big smuggling centre, the place was visited by Robert Burns in his role as Exciseman.    And another famous figure connected to the Carse is John Paul Jones - the pirate who became the founder of the US Navy.
I remember the Carse well as one of the numerous attractive stopping places on the Solway Firth while on the way to Rockcliffe or Kippford.  
My mother gave me a book for my birthday in 1996 that had this print in it - as well as a framed version for the wall.