We, your Majesty's Commissioners, appointed to make an Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilisation, and conditions of life of the people in Scotland from the earliest times to the year 1707, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation, humbly present to your Majesty this our fifth Report. During the summer and autumn of 1912, Mr A. O. Curie, then Secretary to the Commission, continued and completed the survey and examination of the monuments and constructions in Galloway.
The first volume, containing an Inventory of the monuments and constructions in the County of Wigtown, giving the situation and characteristics of each monument, with its bibliography, a reference to the Ordnance Survey sheet (6-inch scale) on which the object is noted, and the date on which it was visited, was submitted and published in the autumn of last year, and the second volume, relating to the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, treated in similar detail, with numerous illustrations and ground-plans, and supplied with a map showing the positions of the various monuments and constructions, or groups thereof, is now presented. An appendix to this Report contains a list of those monuments in the said Stewartry which, in the opinion of your Commissioners, seem most worthy of preservation. As in former Reports, these have been divided into two classes, viz. (a) those which appear to be specially in need of protection, and (b) those worthy of preservation, but not in imminent risk of demolition or decay." - From the Preface.