Dumfries

According to another theory, the name is a corruption of two words which mean the Friars Hill; those who favour this idea allege that St. Ninian, by planting a religious house near the head of what is now the Friars Vennel, at the close of the fourth century, became the virtual founder of the Burgh; however Ninian, so far as is known, did not originate any monastic establishments anywhere and was simply a missionary. In the list of British towns given by the ancient historian Nennius, the name Caer Peris occurs, which some modern antiquarians suppose to have been transmuted, by a change of dialect, into Dumfries.