Notes on the way
through Ayrshire - 100 years
ago
Dalmellington
Parish
South-east of Dalrymple. The town
of Dalmellington stands a good half-mile east of the Doon River,
with the pretty Moik Water streaming through its centre, 15 miles
south-east of Ayr. It appears to have had some shape of existance as early
as 1003, and has risen to modern importance through cloth
manufacture, and latterly through extensive mining and ironworks. Though
only a small place, it has a regular town aspect, with a nice lot of
shops, a Clydesdale Bank, a Royal Bank, a post office with telegraph,
money order and savings bank departments; Established, Free, and
Evangelical Union Churches; a Roman Catholic Chapel, a large public
school, two hotels and a terminal railway station. Population in 1871,
1514; in 1881, 1437. It is environed by a few plantations; overlooking it
on the south side is an ancient moat, amd immediately behind that is the
site of an ancient castle. Dalmellington has produced a number of eminent
men, but the best natural genius seems to have been Robert Hetrick,
the blacksmith poet; and the district is not without its tales of the
sufferings of the Covenanters.
The village of CRAIGMARK stands
one mile north of the town, at the flowing together of several
"bonnie we burns" that come dancing down Craigmark Hill.
Population 383.
The village of WATERSIDE stands
on the right bank of the Doon, at the foot of Green Hill -
which rises to 450 feet above the river - three miles north-west of
Dalmellington. It was founded, along with the extensive Dalmellington
Ironworks adjacent to it, in 1847; consists of long, uniform streets or
rows; and has a public school, a railway station, and a post office with
telegraph, money order and savings bank departments, styled DUNASKIN.
Population in 1871, 1473; in 1881, 1681. Less than a mile east of it, on Dunaskin
Burn, is the site of Laight Castle, where
Alpine, King
of the Scots, was defeated and killed in a battle fought A.D. 837.
The village of BURNFOOTHILL lies
a mile to the north-west. Population in 1871, 1421; 1881, 1690.
The village of BENQUHAT has a
population of 772.
Going north-east from
the town of Dalmellington, the New Cumnock Road shortly
turns eastward, up Cummock Burn, beautifully wooded for some
distance, and flanked with lofty hills. On its north side is the
precipitous Benbeoch, 1521 feet high, affording a grand view of New
Cumnock vale and hills. Going south of the town, the banks of Doon
River become richly adorned with plantations up to Loch Doon,
three miles. The loch lies between high moors, is six miles in length from
north to south, and three-quarters of a mile broad near its middle, but
its general breadth is less than half-a-mile. It contains several small
islands, and on one of them, at the south end, the ruins of an old castle.
It is the largest lake in Ayrshire, and far the most famous for
trout angling. Its east shore, as far as the widest part, is in Dalmellington
parish, and south of that is in Carsphairn parish, Kirkcudbright.
Though Loch Doon and the mansion of Barbeth, a mile north of
it, belong to the environs of Dalmellington, they are in the parish of
Straiton. The main feeders of the loch are Gala Lane and Carrick
Lane, rising seven miles to the south, in Kirkcudbrightshire. The river
Doon, issuing from the north end of Loch Doon, descends at once
into the bosom of Glen Ness, an amazingly narrow and deep ravine-a
few yards wide, 200 feet deep, and nearly a mile in length. There is a
footpath along its bottom, hewn out of the rock, a few feet above the
current. The rugged, perpendicular, rocky walls of each side, which are
only the length of a fishing rod apart, are beautifully variegated with a
rich diffusion of tangled botanic greenary, sprinkled with flowers, the
slender leafy branches of trees interlacing overhead, away up, up, and up
among the love-throated birds, to a glimmering streak of sky. It is almost
frightful, and exceedingly beautiful. Emerging from Glen Ness and Berbeth
Woods, the river gradually veers from a north to a north-west
direction, through bogs and meadows for some miles, especially fine on
sunny days in the hay-making season, its brows becoming again graced with
woods past Patna and Carnochan, and so continuing, with few
breaks, to the sea. Its length from Loch Doon is about 22
miles.
The mineral wealth of
the parish lies in its north-west half. The coal seams in descending order
are:- Sillyhole coal, 6 feet; splint coal, 4 feet; Minvey coal,
3 feet 6 inches; Sloanston coal, 3 feet; Camlarg coal, 4 to
6 feet; new coal, 3 feet. Below these arc three seams at Patna,
having an aggregate thickness of 21 feet.
The length of the
parish, from the Doon at Polnessan Burn, south-east to Small
Burn Bridge, behind Cairn Cunock-- i.e., Cairn
Cumnock - the quondam land-mark between Cumnock, now called New
Cumnock, Carrick, and Kirkcudbright, is nine miles; and its
widest part, from Prickeny Hill in New Cumnock to Loch Doon, is
four and a half miles. Area, 17,783 acres. Population in 1871, 6165; in
1881, 6383.
Robert Taylor's Website
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