The ruins of Threave Castle stand on an island on the lower part of the Dee.

Loch Ken and the Dee Marshes were together designated a Ramsar site on August 21, 1992.

The Tarff Water enters the Dee as a right-bank tributary near Tongland in the tidal stretch of the river.

The headwater streams of the Tarff drain the tract of country between the villages of Laurieston and Ringford including Loch Mannoch.

[5][6] Like other examples of this name in southern Scotland, 'Tarff' is Gaelic in form but is likely to derive in turn from an earlier Cumbric cognate.