Annandale

Annandale In the English language, a ‘dale’ is a river valley. Annandale is the valley of the River Annan which rises in rugged uplands of northern Dumfriesshire and disgorges into the Solway Firth, just south of the town of Annan. By any standards, Annandale is one of the most scenic and beautiful parts of Scotland. Because of its proximity to the sea, Annan has a strong maritime heritage, stretching back many hundreds of years. At present, the port is silted-up and used only by a clutch of fishing vessels and pleasure craft, but once-upon-a-time the Port of Annan boomed. There have been two very significant periods in the modern history of the Port of Annan: During the Scottish diaspora (notionally between the late 1700s and the mid-1900s), approximately 2 million Scots migrated from their native homeland to start a new life, principally in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A surprisingly large number of these migrants embarked from various small ports on the Scottish shores of the Solway Firth, including Glencaple, Dumfries, Carsethorn and Annan, to name but a few. Some migrants departed on direct sailings to far flung places in what would now be considered ludicrously small sailing ships, whilst others transited via Liverpool to join larger vessels. The fact that there are ‘Annan’ and ‘Annandale’ place names in all four of the above mentioned countries is surely not a coincidence (e.g. Annandale is a major suburb of Sydney, Australia)! From 1818 to 1865, there was an established shipbuilding industry in Annan, operated mainly by successive generations of the Nicholson Family. Towards the end of this era, John Nicholson & Co. built a series of nine clipper ships (sleek, narrow-beamed sailing ships designed for transporting cargo at speed).