Kippford is a small village along the Solway

Solway Firth

The Solway Firth is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in Cumbria, to the Mull of Galloway, on the western end of Dumfries and Galloway. The Isle of Man is also very...

 coast, in Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

Geography

Kippford stretches along the banks of the Urr estuary

Urr Water

Urr Water or River Urr is a river in southwest Scotland.Entirely within Dumfries and Galloway, the Urr Water originates at Glenlair, and flows southwards for thirty miles from Loch Urr to its outflow into the Solway Firth at Rough Firth...

 and in places is only one house wide, being hemmed in between the forested Mark hill (locally known as the Muckle) and the sea. Kippford can only be accessed by car from Barnbarroch, passing by Craigieknowes Golf Course and two campsites.

Kippford is also linked to Rockcliffe

Rockcliffe, Dumfries and Galloway

Rockcliffe is a small coastal tourist village in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, with a view of Rough Island, Hestan Island, the Solway Firth and sometimes the Lake District....

 by a scenic track, known as the Jubilee footpath, which passes parallel to the coast (and the village of Kippford) but at a higher elevation. The path can be used to access Mark hill and the Mote of Mark, a 5th century hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

.

Visitors may cross the sands to a small island called Rough Island

Rough Island, Scotland

Rough Island is a tidal island in Rough Firth off the Solway Firth, Scotland. It is 24 m at its highest point.Since 1937 it has been in the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland...

 when the tide allows.

Views from Kippford include the English Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

 coast across the Solway Firth to the South. To the West can be seen Glen Isle and Screel in the background.

Marine Activities

Kippford is a popular sailing village, with many small yachts moored in the tidal estuary of the River Urr

Urr Water

Urr Water or River Urr is a river in southwest Scotland.Entirely within Dumfries and Galloway, the Urr Water originates at Glenlair, and flows southwards for thirty miles from Loch Urr to its outflow into the Solway Firth at Rough Firth...

, and events organised by the Solway Yacht Club. The RNLI has maintained a station, now fitted with a D class lifeboat

D class lifeboat

The D class lifeboat EA16 is a class of inflatable boat formally operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution of the United Kingdom and Ireland. It has been replace by the D class lifeboat -Utilization:...

, in Kippford for the past 40 years. The lifeboat service share use of the villages public slipway

Slipway

A slipway, boat slip or just a slip, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats. They are also used for launching and retrieving small boats on trailers and flying boats on their undercarriage. The...

. Kippford was also involved in the shipbuilding industry, albeit on a very small scale. A Chandlers

Ship chandler

A ship chandler is a retail dealer in special supplies or equipment for ships.For traditional sailing ships items that could be found in a chandler might include: rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch , linseed oil, whale oil, tallow, lard, varnish, twine, rope and cordage, hemp, oakum, tools A ship...

 still exists, and sheds can be found behind it which indicate the boat building activities.

History

Between Kippford and Rockcliffe lies the Mote of Mark, a hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

. Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 Kippford had interests in the granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

quarrying industry, the pier used now by the Solway Yacht Club being a former handling yard for a small railway line running into the hill to the East where a quarry was located.