Map - Kirkcudbright

Kirkcudbright (Kirkcoubrie; Cille Chùithbeirt) is a town, parish and a Royal Burgh from 1455 in Kirkcudbrightshire, of which it is traditionally the county town, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

The town lies southwest of Castle Douglas and Dalbeattie at the mouth of the River Dee, around 4 mi from the Irish Sea.

An early rendition of the name of the town was Kilcudbrit; this derives from the Gaelic Cille Chuithbeirt meaning "chapel of Cuthbert", the saint whose mortal remains were kept at the town between their exhumation at Lindisfarne and reinterment at Chester-le-Street.

John Spottiswoode, in his account of religious houses in Scotland, mentions that the Franciscans, or Grey Friars, had been established at Kirkcudbright from the 12th century.

John Balliol was in possession of the ancient castle at Castledykes in the late 13th century and Edward I of England is said to have stayed here in 1300 during his war against Scotland.

In 1455 Kirkcudbright became a Royal Burgh. About a century later, the magistrates of the town obtained permission from Queen Mary to use part of the convent and nunnery as a parish church. From around 1570, Sir Thomas MacLellan of Bombie, the chief magistrate, received a charter for the site, its grounds and gardens. MacLellan dismantled the church in order to obtain material for his new castle, a very fine house, which was built on the site.

After defeat at the Battle of Towton, Henry VI of England crossed the Solway Firth in August 1461 to land at Kirkcudbright in support of Queen Margaret at Linlithgow. The town for some time withstood a siege in 1547 from the English commander Sir Thomas Carleton but, after the surrounding countryside had been overrun, was compelled to surrender.

Kirkcudbright Tolbooth was built between 1625 and 1629 and served not only as the tolbooth, but also the council offices, the burgh and sheriff courts, the criminal prison and the debtors' prison. One of the most famous prisoners was John Paul Jones, founder of the United States Navy, who was born in Kirkbean. The Tolbooth was superseded as the county's main administrative building by a new courthouse at 85 High Street, built in 1788 and rebuilt in 1868, which then served as the meeting place of Kirkcudbrightshire County Council from its creation in 1890 until 1952 when the council moved its meeting place to County Buildings.

The Johnston School was the town primary school until replaced with a new build in 2009. The school was endowed with a bequest by Kirkcudbright merchant and shipowner William Johnston (1769- 1845) and opened in 1847 as Johnston's Free School. The building was designed by Edinburgh architect James Newlands (1813-1871) who later went on to be the first Borough Engineer for Liverpool where he designed and built the first integrated sewerage system in the world in 1848. The school building was rebuilt, retaining the Italianate tower and façade in 1933 by William A MacKinnell, (1871-1940). He was the County Architect for Kirkcudbrightshire and built many schools in the Stewartry. In 2020 the building was refurbished as a Community Activity and Resource Centre. The building is Listed Category B.

St Andrew's and St Cuthbert's Church was designed in 1886 by London architect A E Purdie (1843-1920), in the Gothic style. It was built on the site of the medieval St Andrew's Church. In 1971 the interior was re-ordered and stripped of its Victorian fixtures and fittings and now features an abstract concrete and iron cross by the Liverpool sculptor Sean Rice (1931-1997), modern stained glass by the Polish artist Jerzy Faczynski (1917-1994) and a set of four paintings by Vivien K. Chapman depicting The Passion of Christ.