Notes on the way through Ayrshire - 100 years ago  

BARR PARISH

East of Girvan. The village of Barr stands on Stinchar River, near the north-west side of the parish, about seven miles east-south-east of Girvan, and fully five miles from a railway station. It has Established and Free Churches, a public school, a post office, an inn, grocer’s, shoemaker’s, and blacksmith’s shops. Sir Andrew Lusk, M.P., Alderman of the city of London, son of John Lusk of Barr, born September 18, 1812, left his home in early life with only a few shillings in his pocket; worked his way up to the position of a London merchant and shipowner; Sheriff of London, 1860;

The surface of the parish is nearly all hills and mountains. On the east boundary, Kirriereoch Hill, 2562, and Shalloch, 2520 feet above sea level, are the highest mountains in the shire. There is a narrow strip of cultivated land along the river. From the Stinchar, at the foot of Assel Water, east to Carrick Lane, on the march with Kirkcudbrightshire, the length of the parish is 15 miles, and its widest part is about 10 miles. Area, 54,876 acres, being the largest parish in the county. Population in 1841, 959; in 1871, 672; in 1881, 600.

Barr is the most mountainous parish of the shire. The greater part of its surface consists of hills; and what is not hilly is, in the main, the valleys caused by the sudden and precipitous descent of the crags on the level haughs of the Stinchar, the Cree, and the Water of Minnoch. The highest of the mountain tops is that of Shalloch on Minnoch, which towers to an altitude of 2,520 feet ; next comes Polmaddie, and after it Shalloch, and Haggis and Rowantree, and Eldrick, and Blackhill, and half a dozen more, all rising to the south of the Stinchar; while dominating the river on the north are Whiterow, Scaurs, Lennie, the Tappins, Jedbrugh, Auchensoul, with a few companions, all rather bald and bare, but presenting in combination and in grouping, scenes of Highland beauty which have no counterpart elsewhere in all Ayrshire. Across the border into Galloway the hills stretch on and away, bigger, more massive, and not less rugged, until they culminate in Kirriereoch and Minnigaff, the latter of which pierces the blue at an elevation of 2,764 feet above the level of the sea.

This Link takes you to the GOOGLE MAP SITE where you will find a map of the town and the surrounding area as it is today. You can zoom in and out and move around in all directions.

This Link takes you to the MULTIMAP website where you will find a map of the town and the surrounding area as it is today. You can zoom in and out and move around in all directions.

This Link takes you to the STREET website where you will find a street map of the town as it is today. You can zoom in and out and move around in all directions.

Old Maps of Ayrshire Towns

This link goes directly to the OLD MAPS website for an Ayrshire Index to detailed old maps of most Ayrshire Towns around 1860. You can explore out to all sides by using the arrows at the top of the page. These maps are ideal for finding the locations of areas such as farms.

The chief antiquity in the old churchyard is a tombstone erected in memory of Edward McKeen, a Covenanter, who was shot, on the 28th of February 1685, by Cornet Douglas and his party. On the evening of that day, Douglas, with a company of 24 soldiers, surrounded the farm house of Dalwine, still standing about four miles above the village of Barr. On searching the house they discovered McKeen, a pious young man, who was then on a visit from Galloway, hiding betwixt the gable of one house and the side wall of another. After asking him a number of questions, one of the soldiers had him by the arm, dragging him away, when the ruffian, Douglas, without any warning, or permitting him to pray, discharged his pistol and shot him through the head......>

Barr Village

This site is dedicated to the rural community of Barr a village set in the hills of South-West Scotland