In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Kirkconnel like this:
Kirkconnel, an ancient parish in Annandale, Dumfriesshire, annexed, after the Reformation, to Kirkpatrick-Fleming. Its graveyard, on a meadow within a fold of Kirtle Water, 2½ miles NNE of Kirtlebridge station, contains the ashes of ` Fair Helen of Kirkconnel Lee,' and those of her lover, Adam Fleming, in saving whose life she lost her own, from the bullet of her less favoured suitor, a Bell of Blacket House. ...
Whether her own name was Bell or Irving is hard to determine, but tradition seems to refer the tragedy to some time in the 16th century; and it forms the theme of that sweetest of Scottish ballads-
I wish I were where Helen lies,
Night and day on me she cries;
Oh that I were where Helen lies
On fair Kirkconnel Lee!Bell's Tower, the home of Fair Helen, was demolished in 1734.—Ord. Sur., sh. 10, 1864.
Kirkconnel through time
Kirkconnel is now part of Dumfries and Galloway district. Click here for graphs and data of how Dumfries and Galloway has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Kirkconnel itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Kirkconnel, in Dumfries and Galloway and Dumfries Shire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/22191
Date accessed: 13th May 2024
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