Annan

Annan, a royal, municipal and police burgh of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on the Annan, nearly 2 m. from its mouth, 15 m. from Dumfries by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. It has a station also on the Caledonian railway company’s branch line from Kirtlebridge to Brayton (Cumberland), which crosses the Solway Firth at Seafield by a viaduct, 11⁄3 m. long, constructed of iron pillars girded together by poles, driven through the sand and gravel into the underlying bed of sandstone. Annan is a well-built town, red sandstone being the material mainly used. Among its public buildings is the excellent academy of which Thomas Carlyle was a pupil. The river Annan is crossed by a stone bridge of three arches dating from 1824, and by a railway bridge. The Harbour Trust, constituted in 1897, improved the shipping accommodation, and vessels of 300 tons approach close to the town. The principal industries include cotton and rope manufactures, bacon-curing, distilling, tanning, shipbuilding, sandstone quarrying, nursery-gardening and salmon-fishing. Large marine engineering works are in the vicinity. Annan is a burgh of considerable antiquity. Roman remains exist in the neighbourhood, and the Bruces, lords of Annandale, the Baliols, and the Douglases were more or less closely associated with it. During the period of the Border lawlessness the inhabitants suffered repeatedly at the hands of moss-troopers and through the feuds of rival families, in addition to the losses caused by the English and Scots wars. Edward Irving was a native of the town. With Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Lochmaben and Sanquhar, Annan unites in sending one meniber to parliament. Annan Hill commands a beautiful prospect. Population (1901) 5805.