Nithraid

Last updated

The Nithraid is an annual sail, row boat race and festival held in the town of Dumfries, Scotland. [1] Competitors race small boats up the River Nith from Carsethorn to Mill Green in the centre of Dumfries on the high tide. There are three bridges along the river that require boats to lower masts or even deliberately capsize to pass under.

Dumfries town in Scotland

Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries is the traditional county town of the historic county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South. People from Dumfries are known colloquially in the Scots language as Doonhamers.The nickname has also given name to the town's professional football club.

Scotland Country in Europe, part of the United Kingdom

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

River Nith river in Scotland

The River Nith is a river in south-west Scotland. The Nith rises in the Carsphairn hills of East Ayrshire, more precisely between Prickeny Hill and Enoch Hill, 4.4 miles (7.1 km) east of Dalmellington. For the majority of its course it flows in a southerly direction through Dumfries and Galloway and then into the Solway Firth at Airds point.

Contents

A festival takes place at the finish line at Mill Green, with activities, acoustic music sets and local artists on show.

The Nithraid takes place in August/September each year, and has been running since 2013. [2]

The 2016 Nithraid took place on 3 September and was won by Dave Golding. [3]

The 2018 Nithraid took place on 11th August, and was won by Mark Zygadlo. The Salty Coo Procession was led by Dumfries based production and arts company ‘The Maddjakkalls'. [4]

The course

The Nithraid runs from Carsethorn in the Solway Firth, up the river Nith to Dumfries town centre, finishing at Mill Green next to The Caul (a weir).

Weir barrier across a river designed to alter its flow characteristics

A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. There are many designs of weir, but commonly water flows freely over the top of the weir crest before cascading down to a lower level.

Origins

The Nithraid was created as a way to celebrate Dumfries' connection to the river Nith highlighting the way the Nith connected Dumfries to the rest of the world through trade, goods and sail power. Competing boats carry a small symbolic cargo up the river.

The winning crew have the right to launch the Salty Coo (a representation of a cow, covered in salt crystals) into the river, as a symbolic celebration of livestock and salt being important examples of commodities that were traded. Prior to the race, the Salty Coo is paraded through the town. [5]

The Nithraid is organised by The Stove Network (Dumfries), a local artist-led collective.

Related Research Articles

Isle of Wight County and island of England

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is in the English Channel, between 2 and 5 miles off the coast of Hampshire, separated by the Solent. The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines.

Dumfries and Galloway Council area of Scotland

Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It comprises the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and Wigtownshire, the latter two of which are collectively known as Galloway. The administrative centre is the town of Dumfries.

Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Thornhill is a town in the Mid Nithsdale area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, south of Sanquhar and north of Dumfries on the main A76 road. Thornhill sits in the Nithsdale valley with the Carsphairn and Scaur range to the west and the Lowther hills to the east. It was initially a small village, planned and built in 1717 on the Queensberry Estate on the road linking Dumfries to Glasgow. The Earl of Queensberry initially named the village 'New Dalgarnock' however the name did not achieve popular approval.

Dumfriesshire Historic county in Scotland

Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.

Turriff Town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Turriff is a town and civil parish in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. It lies on the River Deveron, about 166 feet (51 m) above sea level, and has a population of 5,708. In everyday speech it is often referred to by its Scots name, Turra, which is derived from the Scottish Gaelic pronunciation.

John Colum Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, styled Earl of Dumfries before 1993, is a British peer and a former racing driver, most notably winning the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans. He does not use his title and prefers to be known solely as John Bute, although he has also been called Johnny Dumfries. The family home is Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. He attended Ampleforth College, as had his father and most male members of the Crichton-Stuart family, but did not finish the normal five years of study.

New Abbey village in United Kingdom

New Abbey is a village in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is around 6 miles (10 km) south of Dumfries. The summit of the prominent hill Criffel is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the south.

Ayr, Ontario Unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada

The community of Ayr, Ontario, Canada is located within the Township of North Dumfries in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Southwestern Ontario. Ayr is located south of Kitchener and west of Cambridge.

Elaine Murray British politician

Elaine Kildare Murray is a Scottish Labour politician, Leader of Dumfries & Galloway Council and former Member of the Scottish Parliament for Dumfriesshire since 1999. At the 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections, Murray increased her percentage share of the vote. She was Shadow Minister for the Environment in the Scottish Parliament. She lost her seat in 2016.

Stair Park

Stair Park is a public park and football stadium in the town of Stranraer, Scotland. It is owned by Dumfries and Galloway Council and is situated next to the London Road and the railway line in the town. The park features a bandstand, all weather tennis & netball courts, skatepark, football pitch and a football stadium. The park and stadium were named after the Earl of Stair, who bequeathed the land to the local authorities.

Palmerston Park football stadium

Palmerston Park is a football stadium on Terregles Street in Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Championship club Queen of the South, who have played there since 1919. South of Scotland League club Heston Rovers have shared Palmerston since 2013. The stadium has a capacity of 8,690 of which 3,377 are seats.

Tiamat is a 40-foot racing yacht that sails out of Dublin Bay, Ireland under the burgee of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club.

Kirkbean human settlement in United Kingdom

Kirkbean is a small Scottish village and civil parish on the Solway Firth, in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire and now in Dumfries and Galloway. In the 2001 census, the four small villages making up the parish of Kirkbean had a total population of 643. The parish also includes the hamlet of Loaningfoot.

Lowther Hills

The Lowther Hills, also sometimes known as the Lowthers, are an extensive area of hill country in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, though some sub ranges of hills in this area also go under their own local names - see "Hill Walking" below. They form a roughly rhomboidal or lozenge shape on the map with the acute angles being to north and south. It has river valleys along its boundaries to north east (Clydesdale) and south west (Nithsdale) which carry the two largest arterial routes northwards into the west side of the Central Belt of Scotland. A string of small towns have long since developed along these routes.

Hannah Mills British yacht racer

Hannah Mills, is a British competitive sailor. Mills won a silver medal for Team GB with her crew Saskia Clark in the 2012 Olympics, and won gold in the same event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Troqueer village in United Kingdom

Troqueer is a former village and a parish in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway on the west side of the River Nith. The eastern-side was merged with Dumfries to the east in 1929, and, today, eastern Troqueer is a suburb of Dumfries.

Colin Smyth MSP is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. He was general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party 2008−2012.

Barburgh Mill

Barburgh Mill is a hamlet composed of an old lint mill, later extended as a woollen mill and associated buildings which lies north of Auldgirth on the A76 on the route to Closeburn, in Dumfriesshire, Closeburn Parish, in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. Its original nucleus was the old mill with associated buildings, the smithy, toll house and the miller's and workers dwellings. The site features the A76 that runs nearby, the River Nith and the Lake Burn that once powered the mill via a lade before joining the Nith. The area is famous for its association with the Covenanters. A Roman fortlet stood opposite the mill and a Roman road is thought to have run through Nithsdale at this point.

References

  1. "Crowds expected at Nithraid event in Dumfries". BBC News Online . Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  2. In pictures: Nithraid boat race in Dumfries - BBC News 24 September 2013: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-24207652
  3. "The Nithraid 2016". The Stove Network.
  4. "The Nithraid 2018". The Stove Network./
  5. "Salt Cow dunked in 'Nithraid'". ITV News. Retrieved 5 September 2016.