Notes on the way through
Ayrshire - 100 years ago
MONKTON AND PRESTWICK
PARISH
On the
sea-shore, south-west of Symington. The village of Monkton
stands at the joining of six roads, three and a-half miles north of Ayr,
one mile from the sea ; and has a railway station, half-a-mile west, a
post office, and a public school. Population in 1871, 467; in 1881, 354.
The old kirk of
Monkton is mentioned by Henry
as a meeting place of Wallace
and his uncle, the sheriff, before the disaster at the Barns of Ayr.
At a very early period, the kirk and lands of Monkton and
Dalmulyn were gifted to the Abbey of Paisley; and the rent
paid to the Abbey in 1525 was £114 9s. 2d., 205 capons, and 135
hens. There are also the remains of an ancient chapel, called
Ladykirk, at the east boundary of the parish, two and a-half miles
by road from Monkton. Macrae’s Monument stands half-a-mile
north-east of the village. James
Macrae was a native, who, on the
death of his father in the days of persecution, entered the service of
the East India Company as a cabin boy, and step by step rose to be
Governor of Madras. Returning home in the peaceful days of William
III., he signified his
appreciation of the blissful change by erecting the equestrian statue to
that monarch in the Trongate, Glasgow.
Chief seats are Adamton
House, one mile east of Monkton; Fairfield House, half-a-mile
north; Orangefield, half-a-mile south.
The surface of the
parish is flat and sandy, rising a little, and growing more consistent
eastward. The main stream is the Pow Burn, crossed by a bridge at
the Established Church of the united parishes, between Prestwick and
Monkton. The length of the parish, north, is four miles fully, and its
breadth is three miles. Area, 3760 acres. Population, 2121.
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