The parish church was originally some five miles south of Drummore, at a site on the Kirkburn, not far from the Mull of Galloway; the name of the nearest cove, Portankill, suggests that originally many worshippers attended Mass by boat [REF].
In 1638 the parishioners, citing the inconvenience of the journey to church, secured the building of a new church known as Kirk Covenant on Core Hill, about a mile west of Drummore.