Whiting Bay
This Bay of Golden waters in
the morning sun,
This Bay of moonlit silver
when the day is done,
This Bay, where floating
clouds, like snowy fleece
Blanket this kindly hearth,
our bed of peace.
The districts of Whiting Bay
are Kings Cross, Sandbraes, Auchencairn, Knockankelly, North, mid and south
Kiscadale, Largiemhor, Largiemeanoch and Largiebeg. The district was inhabited
in pre-historic times - evidence of this includes the Giants' Graves on the
route up to the Ashdale Falls. Evidence of Viking settlement can be found at
Kings Cross where there is the remains of a Viking Fort and a burial mound. A
notable visitor in the 14th century was Robert the Bruce who left from Kings
Cross for Ayrshire across the Firth of Clyde.
There was a corn mill in Glen
Ashdale at one time. Fishing boats and small boats were built at Largiebeg
Point. Smuggling and running illicit stills were profitable sidelines for many.
There was little contact with
the mainland in early days, then slowly some trading was done by wherry or
rowing boat from Ayrshire, and later there was an irregular packet service.
Smacks were owned by local men and brought their cargoes into the mouths of the
burns to be loaded into carts. Travelling bodies came around selling goods from
baskets, and there were also little shops at Largiemhor, Pleasantfield, Morven,
and others. In about 1770 a fairly regular service started from Saltcoats, then
a steamer service from Glasgow in 1829, to be followed by one from Ardrossan on
completion of the railway in 1860. There were no piers, so passengers and
freight were landed by small boats at the ferry landing at Kings Cross and at
the jetty at Whiting Bay. The pier was built in 1901, but for many years the
call at Kings Cross continued. The pier was eventually dismantled in 1964. There
were exciting times when the Glasgow and South Western Railway and the Caledonia
Steam Packet Company both had railway lines to Ardrossan and their own steamers
racing for the piers. Whiting Bay even had a boat of its own.
Whiting Bay had a chapel of
Ease and burial ground in Glen Ashdale, under the Parish Church in Lamlash. The
Established Church, latterly the Arran Gallery, was built about 1873, but it was
1908 before it became a parish in its own right. After the Disruption in 1843,
the Free Church of Scotland was built at Strathwhillan, Brodick, serving the
congregation from Corrie to Whiting Bay. Then in 1874 Whiting Bay Free Church
was built. The split, in 1900, when the United Free Church was formed it was
ruled that the Free Church congregation should retain it. The United Free
congregation erected a wooden building just south of the old church, and
worshiped there until the completion of the Stewart Memorial in 1910. The
Established and U.F. congregations joined in 1929, retaining Stewart Memorial.