BEITH, a parish, chiefly in the district of CunningHAME,
county of Ayr, and partly in the Upper ward
of the county of Renfrew, IS miles (W. S. W.) from
Glasgow; including the villages of Gateside, Northbar,
and Burnhouse, and containing 5*95 inhabitants. This
place is supposed to have taken its name from a Celtic
term signifying " birch ", and many parts of the district
are referred to, as still bearing names formed partly
with the word icood, such as Roughwood, Woodside,
Threepwood, and others. In ancient times the locality
consisted of the two great divisions called the barony of
Beith, and the lordship of Giffen, the latter being the
more extensive, and the two districts being divided from
each other by the Powgree, a stream that falls into the
Garnock near the south end of Kilbirnie loch. The
barony was given in the twelfth century to Kilwinning
Abbey by Richard de Moreville, the son and successor
of Hugh de Moreville, constable of Scotland, and lord of
Cunninghame; and his wife Avicia de Lancaster gave
the lands of Beith, Bath, and Threepwood, also to the
abbey. This religious establishment erected a chapel
here, afterwards the church of Beith, the monks enjoying
the tithes and revenues, and finding a curate to do
the duty. About the period of the Reformation, the
abbot and chapter feued out the lands in the barony
for small feu-duties, which, with the other temporalities
of the church, passed to Hugh, fifth Earl of Eglinton,
who was created lord of erection of the monastery. The
lordship of Giffen was given by the family of Moreville
to Walter de Mulcaster, the donation comprehending
the whole of the lands to the south and west of the Powgree:
the ruins of a chapel founded by the monastery
of Kilwinning, and dedicated to St. Bridget, are still to
be seen on a part of this property.
Beith, at the beginning of the last century, was only
a small village, consisting of a few houses in the vicinity
of the church; but has since grown into a thriving
manufacturing town, with a large and industrious population.
It is situated on an eminence, in the midst of a
district abounding with beautiful scenery. The town is
well lighted with gas, supplied by a company established
in 1831, with a capital of £1600. It contains a subscription
library of 400 volumes, and two circulating
hbraries. The population comprises several merchants
who deal very extensively in grain, and persons engaged
in various kinds of traffic, but is to a great extent composed
of hand-loom weavers; and about 200 persons
resident in the parish are regularly engaged in the manufacture
of flax thread. A mill for spinning flax, lately
erected at North-bar, two miles from the town, affords
employment to eighty hands; the proprietor has built
several houses, and has commenced feus, so that a considerable
village maybe expected shortly to arise on this
spot. At Roughbank is an establishment of the same
description, on a smaller scale, and also a mill for
making potato-flour, occupying about fourteen persons;
while at Knows an establishment has been formed containing
forty steam-looms, furnishing employment to
thirty persons. There are two bleachfields at Threepwood,
in the north-eastern part of the parish; and the
tanning and currying of leather are pursued to a considerable
extent in the town. The enterprising spirit of
the inhabitants has left untouched scarcely any article
of profitable speculation. Beith is a post-town, and there
are two arrivals and departures daily; also a daily despatch
of letters to the neighbouring towns of Dairy,
Kilbirnie, and Lochwinnoch. The great line of road
from Glasgow to Portpatrick passes through the town,
and the Glasgow and Ayrshire railway has a station
about a mile distant from the place.
The marketable produce is usually sent for sale to
Glasgow and Paisley; a weekly market, however, of
ancient date, is held on Friday, and there are likewise
annual fairs, chiefly for horses, on the first Friday in the
months of January, February, May, and November
(O. S.). A festival vulgarly called Tenant's day, attended
by a great concourse of people, and celebrated for its
show of horses, is held yearly on the ISth of August
(O. S.), in honour of St. Inan, from whose name, with
the last letter of the word saint, the appellation of the
fair has been formed, by corrupt usage. Inan flourished
about the year 839, and though chiefly resident at
Irvine, occasionally remained for a time at this place,
where he has left memorials in the name applied to the
cleft in a rock, still called St. Inan's Chair, and in the
name of a well, called St. Inan's Well. A fair called
the " Trades' race " was formerly held in the month of
June, when the trades assembled, and went in order
through the town, with music and flags: this has been
given up; but there is still an annual dinner of the
merchants, who were united as a society previously to
the year 172", and the whole of whom meet for the purpose
of conviviality on the anniversary, and choose a
president. A kind of fair, likewise, is held in July, called
the "Cadgers' race", when the carters ride in procession
through the town. A baron-bailie and a baron-officer
were formerly appointed by the Earls of Eglinton, who
had considerable property in the parish; but nothing of
this kind has taken place for many years, and the town
has no particular local government. The town-house was
built by subscription, in 1817: the lower part consists of
two shops, and the upper part of a large hall, in which
the justice- of-peace courts, the sheriff small-debt circuit
courts, and public meetings are held; it is also used as a
public reading-room.
The PARISH is in the form of a triangle, and is bounded
on the west by Kilbirnie loch. It measures at its greatest
length, from south-east to south-west, four miles;
and comprises an area of 11,060 acres, of which 500 are
in Renfrewshire. About 320 acres in the parish are uncultivated,
100 acres in plantations, and the remainder is
pasture and tillage. The surface is considerably varied,
throughout, with undulations, without presenting any
remarkable elevations, the highest point, called Cuff hill,
being only 6,52 feet above the sea. From this eminence,
as well as from some of the uplands, extensive views are
obtained of the surrounding country, amply compensating
for the general uniformity of the local scenery.
The hill is supposed to take its name from the word
Coifi, or Cuifi, the appellation of the chief priest of the
Druids, and to have been a principal seat of the worship
of that ancient order: the fair of St. Inan, also, in later
times, was held here. The prospect from the summit
embraces the mountain ranges of Galloway and Carrick.
the expansive estuary of the Clyde, the outhne of the
Perthshire hills, and the majestic Ben-Lomond. The
surface of the parish gently slopes from the north-eastern
quarter, the vicinity of Cuff hill, and is lowest at Kilbirnie
loch, being here only ninety feet above the sea
level. From this sheet of water a stream flows northward
through Lochwinnoch to the river Clyde, along a
valley in which the line of railway to Glasgow also runs.
At Blaeloch-head is a small lake; and different parts of
the parish are enlivened by streams: the two principal are
the river Lugton, rising in Lochlibo, and falling into the
Garnock below Eglinton Castle; and the Dusk, which
rises at Threepwood, and joins the Garnock at Dalgarvan,
below Dairy.
The lands present a great variety of soil, but in general
are fertile, and tolerably well cultivated; the chief crop
is oats. Large portions are in pasture, and about 900
milch-cows, mostly of the Ayrshire breed, besides young
cattle, are grazed on the different grounds. Cheese is
consequently a leading article of traffic, and is purchased
of the tenants by cheese-merchants for the Glasgowmarket;
milk is disposed of to some extent in the surrounding
villages, and large quantities of rye-grass seed
are shipped to England by merchants residing in the
town. The farms are of small size, varying from fifty
to 100 acres; and full two-thirds of the rent are made by
the sale of the cheese, which is of excellent quality, and
brings the highest price at market. The annual value
of real property in the parish is £15,140. The chief
mineral deposits are coal and limestone, which are
wrought extensively: clay-ironstone is also found, and
brick-clay is dug for use at two manufactories of drain
tiles; ironstone exists in several parts, and a freestonequarry
is in operation. Plantations are rare, especially
those of an ornamental kind, except in the vicinity of the
mansions, among which is Caldwell House, at the eastern
extremity of the parish, a large and elegant modern structure,
surrounded by a spacious park richly ornamented
with trees, including some of great stature and beauty.
Ecclesiastically the parish is in the presbytery of
Irvine, synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and in the patronage
of the Earl of Eglinton: the minister's stipend is
£251. 5. 11., with a manse, and a glebe valued at £130
per annum. Beith church, commenced in 1807, and
opened for public worship in 1810, is a plain edifice
with a tower and clock, and accommodates 1254 persons;
it was erected at a cost of £2790, and the bell,
which has a very fine tone, was the gift of Robert
Shedden, Esq., of London, a native of this parish. There
are places of worship for the United Presbyterian Synod
and members of the Free Church. The parochial school
affords instruction in tlie usual branches; the master has
a salary of £26, with a substantial dwelling-house, a good
garden, and the usual fees. There are also schools at
Hazlehead and other places. A savings' bank was
formed in 1.S34; and two societies have been partly endowed,
for the relief of the poor. Alexander Montgomerie,
one of the earlier Scottish poets, and of some celebrity,
was born in the parish.