Notes on the way
through Ayrshire - 100 years
ago
CARRICK
THE ancient southern
division of Ayrshire, gave the title of Earl to Robert
Bruce of Turnberry Castle, in this
district, who became King of Scotland; and the present Earl
of Carrick is his descendant, the Prince
of Wales.
It comprises nine parishes.
MAYBOLE PARISH
South-west of Ayr. The
town of Maybole, the old capital of Carrick, is situated
toward the south end of the parish, at the junction of eight or ten
roads that diverge in all directions like the spokes of a wheel, on a
pleasant country side having a south-east exposure, two miles north-west
of Girvan Water, three and a half miles east of the sea
shore, and eight and a half miles south-by-west of Ayr. It
presents an oblong form, south-west, containing a compact old centre
body of rather narrow streets, firmly built, and, though partly
reconstructed, having a general aspect of rich antiquity, and
outspreading modern parts. It has a large number of shops; a post
office, with telegraph, money order, insurance, annuity, and savings
bank departments; Commercial, Royal, and Union Ranks; three public
schools, two Established Churches, a Free Church, a United Presbyterian
Church, Episcopalian and Roman Catholic places of worship, a poorhouse,
a railway station, and extensive manufactories of boots and shoes,
leather, and agricultural implements. Population in 1871, 3797; in 1881,
4474.
In the olden time, it
is said that there stood within its precincts " no fewer than 28
baronial mansions, stately, turreted, and strong," whose lofty
interior walls glittered with swords and spears and battle-axes. They
were the winter residences of the
chivalrous chiefs of Carrick, who
carried on a perpetual warfare with themselves and their neighbours in
Kyle. Only one of the more recent of these, erected in 1650 as a
residence of the Earls of Cassillis,
now remains; and even the ruins of most of the others have disappeared,
having been utilized in the building of ordinary dwellings. The ruins of
a Collegiate Church, founded by Sir
John Kennedy in 1371, are
still preserved. Walter
Kennedy,
early Scotch poet, a descendant of the founder, is understood to have
been the Dunbars of
New Cumnock Castle -
mentions him feelingly in his " Lament for the Makkars."
Walter
Kennedy
died about 1508.
The village of MINISHANT
is on the new Ayr Road, three and a half miles north of the town,
near the river Doon. It has a public school, a post office, a
smithy, a joiner’s shop, a woollen factory, and Cassillis Railway
Station less than a mile off. Auchendrane Castle, re-built,
stands near it.
The hamlet and smithy
of CULROY BRIDGE, the seats of Grange House, Otterden
House, and the old castle of Sauchrie are up a beautiful
bosky burn to the west of it. Two miles farther down the Doon,
opposite Burns’ Monument, stand the renovated old castle of
Newark - where Queen Mary
is said to have slept on the night after the battle of Langside -
Doonside House, Carrick House, and a new church. On the
sea shore, a little to the west, is the ruin of Greenan Castle.
Returning to
The hamlet of FISHERTON,
a mile farther south-west, three furlongs from the beach, has a public
school and an Established Church (forming a quoad sacra parish),
with a population of 609. Fully a mile inland we are on the summit of Brown
Carrick Hill, 940 feet above the sea. It is the best view-point of
Ayrshire. The next best are Knockgeorgian Hill, Ardrossan, and Blacksidend
Hill, Sorn. Descending west, we pass the ruins of Dunduff
Castle and old Kirkbride, and arrive at the fishing village of DUNURE,
with its little harbour, constructed in 1841; also the ruins of Dunure
Castle, the original seat of the
great family of Kennedy,
whose rise to Earl of Cassillis
and Marquis of
Ailsa
has formed a feature of Scottish history. Prior to the Reformation, the
Kennedys were strong benefactors
of the Church. James Kennedy,
born at Dunure, 1405, became Bishop
of Dunkeld, 1438; Bishop
of St. Andrews, 1440; Lord
High Chancellor of Scotland, 1444;
conducted the education of James
III.; founded and liberally
endowed St. Salvator’s College, St. Andrews. Gilbert
Kennedy, third Earl of Cassillis,
Lord of Session, born 1515,
was educated at St. Andrews, where, at the age of 12 years, he was
forced along with others to sign sentence of death on Patrick
Hamilton. In manhood he warmly
embraced the Protestant faith, and was an enthusiastic supporter of
George Wishart,
the martyr, on his preaching tour
through Ayrshire. Gilbert, fourth
Earl, born 1520, though he
took the behalf of Queen Mary
at the battle of Langside, does not appear to have done so in
support of her religion. The cruel system, then practised by the Roman
priesthood, of torturing people on their deathbed with the terrors of
hell-fire till they signed grants of land to the Church, would seem to
have enlarged the acres of Crossraguel Abbey, near Maybole,
at the expense of Dunure estate; for, in September, 1570, the
Earl got a hold of Alan Stewart,
head of the Abbey, and here, in Dunure
Castle, practically turned the scales by fixing him uncomfortably
near an infernal big fire, which he kept poking and poking, and kept him
there roasting until he complied to sign certain charters of Abbey lands
to his satisfaction. Proceeding south, past the farmhouse of Drumshang,
the road leaves the shore - as does also the boundary of the parish-and
goes south-eastward to Maybole. Fully a mile south of the town
stands the renovated ancient castle of Kilkenzie.
The parish has rather
a round shape north of the town, formed by the Brown Carrick
range of pastoral hill, with a cultivated base all round, studded with
farmers’ houses, which is flattest and broadest on the south-east. A
narrow piece, extending south of the town, is partly arable and partly
hilly. A very small point of the parish projects along the sea sands
about six furlongs north of the Doon. From there, south to
half-a mile beyond Craigfin, its length is nine and a half miles;
and from Dunure Point, east to the Doon at Paterson, its
widest part is six miles. Area, 21,993 acres. Population in 1871, 5900;
in 1881, 6628.
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