Disambiguation: for other meanings, please see Sark (disambiguation)

Sark (disambiguation)

Sark is one of the Channel Islands.Sark may also refer to: which means "shirt"* Sark, the villain in the 1982 film Tron played by David Warner* Julian Sark, a character from the TV series Alias...

The River Sark or Sark Water is a river best known for forming part of the western border between Scotland and England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Most of its short length, however, is entirely in 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...

.

It has been made famous, partially by Robert Burns

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

' poem, Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation

Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation

Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation is a Scottish folk song whose lyrics are taken from an eponymous Robert Burns poem of 1791. It derides those members of the Parliament of Scotland who signed the Act of Union with England in 1707, comparing their treachery to the country with the tradition of...

, which in the first verse says:

Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,

Fareweel our ancient glory;

Fareweel ev'n to the Scottish name,

Sae fam'd in martial story.

Now Sark rins over 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...

 sands,

An' Tweed

River Tweed

The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of Great Britain. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying...

 rins to the ocean,

To mark where England's province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

 stands-

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!"

The poem's subject was the alleged sale of Scotland in the Anglo-Scottish Treaty of Union

Acts of Union 1707

The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...

. The most famous town on the Sark is Gretna

Gretna

-Places:In Scotland:*Gretna, Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway*Gretna GreenIn Canada:*Gretna, ManitobaIn the United States:*Gretna, Florida*Gretna, Louisiana*Gretna, Nebraska*Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania*Mount Gretna Heights, Pennsylvania...

 Green, best known for its wedding industry. The A74

A74 road

The A74 was a major trunk road in the United Kingdom, linking Glasgow in Scotland to Carlisle in the North West of England. The road has been largely replaced by the A74 and M74 motorways and now only one short stub remains....

 motorway passes over it.

The area around the Sark was notoriously marshy and sandy, as much of the coast of the north west Irish Sea

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...

 is. The small section between the lower end of the Sark and the River Esk

River Esk, Dumfries and Galloway

The River Esk is a river in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, that flows into the Solway Firth. It also flows for a small way through the English county of Cumbria before entering the Solway....

 is known as the "debatable lands

Debatable Lands

The Debatable Lands, also known as Debatable ground, batable ground or thriep lands, was land lying between Scotland and England, formerly in question to which it belonged, when they were distinct kingdoms...

", and was formerly a haven for criminals and outlaws who wished to exploit the weakness of the two countries' border defences. The boundary between the Sark and the Esk is called the Scots' Dike

Scots' Dike

The Scots' Dike or dyke is a three and a half mile / 5.25 km long linear earthwork, constructed by the English and the Scots in the year 1552 to mark the division of the Debatable lands and thereby settle the exact boundary between the Kingdoms of Scotland and England.-Introduction:The...

.

Its name is not connected with "Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark

The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship. Built in 1869, she served as a merchant vessel , and then as a training ship until being put on public display in 1954...

".