The Reformation
So far as Scotland is concerned, the Reformation began in 1560 and reached something like its final, predominantly Presbyterian, form in 1690. The beginnings were relatively peaceful. Presbyteries were established. The abbeys were allowed to wither away and, for the most part, their lands passed into the hands of local noblemen or lairds.
The National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 showed the growing rift between Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and also between Church and State. The majority of Wigtownshire people held to the Covenants. Some took part in the Whiggamore Raid of 1648, which led to Oliver Cromwell's occupation of Edinburgh and subsequent domination of Scotland.
After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, hostilities broke out between the more committed Covenanters and the forces of government. Patrick McDouall of Freugh was on the defeated side at Bothwell Brig (1679). His lands of Freugh and his house, Balgreggan, were confiscated, and granted to the leading soldier on the side of government, John Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards Viscount Dundee - to his supporters 'Bonnie Dundee', to his enemies 'Bluidy Clavers'. A year later Claverhouse was made Sheriff of Wigtown, with instructions to root out the Covenanters.
The arrival of William of Orange in 1688, and the death of Claverhouse at the moment of victory at Killiecrankie (1689) led to the full establishment of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1690.
One consequence of the Reformation was the removal of Kirkmaiden parish church from its hallowed traditional site on the Kirk Burn above Portankill, 'church landing place', on Luce Bay to the modern hamlet of Kirkmaiden, some five miles to the North. The parishioners petitioned for this move in 1638, the year of the National Covenant, and for this reason the new church is often called Kirk Covenant. A little later, the medieval parishes of Kirkmadrine (or Toskarton) and Clayshant were combined to form the modern parish of Stoneykirk.
An incidental consequence of the Reformation was the fairly rapid disappearance of Gaelic as the local spoken language. It was associated with the pre-Reformation order and also came to seem out of touch with the world which began to appear in the course of the seventeenth century.