Shinnel Water, also spelt Shinnell, is a river in the region of Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

It rises in the Scaur hills

Carsphairn and Scaur Hills

The Carsphairn and Scaur hills are the western and eastern hills respectively of a hill range in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Ordnance Survey maps don't have a general name for the hill area as a whole. Also, Ordnance Survey use "Scar" rather than the local spelling of "Scaur" - the word is...

 hills of Tynron

Tynron

Tynron is a village, and former kirkton of Nithsdale, in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. It lies in a hollow of the Shinnel Water, from Moniaive. At Tynron Doon, on a spur of nearby Auchengibbert Hill, there can be seen the ditches and ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort...

 Parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 in the Southern Uplands

Southern Uplands

The Southern Uplands are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas . The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to collectively denote the various ranges of hills within this region...

 at an altitude of 460m, and flows 13 miles to join Scaur Water

Scaur Water

Scaur Water is a river which rises near Polskeoch in the Scaur hills in the region of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.It flows from its source near Sanquhar in the Southern Uplands and joins the River Nith two miles southwest of Thornhill. The total length is...

 near Penpont

Penpont

Penpont is a small village in the region of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, two miles west of Thornhill.It is situated near the confluence of the Shinnel Water and Scaur Water rivers in the foothills of the Southern Uplands, and has a population of roughly 400 people...

, at an altitude of 70m. There are two notable features of the Shinnel: at the confluence of the two rivers, it flows over a ridge of rocks with some force; and three miles upstream, the river forms a picturesque waterfall

Waterfall

A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...

 at Aird Linn.

Like Scaur Water, the Shinnel is renowned for trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

 fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 and flows through birch

Birch

Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

 and oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

forest.