Kirkcudbright, is a town and parish 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, some 4mi from the Irish Sea.HistoryAn early rendition of the name of the town was Kilcudbrit; this derives from the Gaelic Cille Chuithbeirt meaning "chapel of Cuthbert", the Anglian saint whose mortal remains were kept at the town between their exhumation at Lindisfarne and reinterment at Chester-le-Street.Spottiswood, in his account of religious houses in Scotland, mentions that the Franciscans or Grey Friars had been established at Kirkcudbright from the 12th century. No traces of the Greyfriars or Franciscan dwellings remain in the parish of Kirkcudbright.In 1453 Kirkcudbright became a royal burgh, and 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.