KIRKCUDBRIGHT (Kur-kob'bri), royal burgh, parish and county town, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1931) 2,311. It is situated at the mouth of the Dee, crossed here by a bridge, 6 m. from the sea and 3o m. S.W. of Dumfries by the L.M.S. railway, being the terminus of a branch line. The old form of the name of the town was Kilcudbrit, from the Gaelic Cil Cud bert, "the chapel of Cuthbert," the saint's body having lain here for a short time during the seven years that lapsed between its exhumation at Lindisfarne and the re-interment at Chester-le Street. The estuary of the Dee is divided at its head by the pen insula of St. Mary's isle, but though the harbour is good, the distance to which the tide retreats impairs its usefulness. The market cross stands in front of the old court-house, now a factory.
The ivy-clad ruins of Bomby castle, founded in 1582 by Sir Thomas Maclellan, ancestor of the barons of Kirkcudbright, stand at the end of the chief street. The town, which witnessed much
of the international strife and Border lawlessness, was taken by Edward I. in 130o. It received its royal charter in 1455. After the battle of Towton, Henry VI. crossed the Solway and landed at Kirkcudbright to join Queen Margaret at Linlithgow. It with stood the English siege in 1547 under Sir Thomas Carleton, but after the country had been overrun was compelled to surrender.
Lord Maxwell, earl of Morton, as a Roman Catholic, mustered his tenants here to act in concert with the Armada ; but on the approach of King James VI. to Dumfries he took ship at Kirk cudbright and was captured. On St. Mary's isle was situated the seat of the earl of Selkirk, at whose house Robert Burns gave the famous Selkirk grace.
Some ha'e meat, and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it ; But we ha'e meat, and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit.