KILBIRNIE, a parish, in the district of CunningHAME,
county of Ayr, 3 miles (\V. by N.) from Beith;
containing 2631 inhabitants. It derives its name from
the term Kil, signifying a church, chapel, or monastic
cell, and Birnie, or Birinus, the tutelar saint of the parish,
the church of which, with the rectorial tithes and
revenues, belonged in ancient times to the monastery
of Kilwinning, the monks providing a vicar to serve the
cure. The parish is situated in the northern extremity
of the county, bordering on Renfrewshire, and is of an
oblong form, measuring in length from south-east to
north-west between seven and eight miles, and about
two miles and a half in average breadth. It consists
nominally of the three baronies of Kilbirnie, Glengarnock,
and Ladyland; and comprises an area of 10,800
acres, of which 1600 are arable, 2800 in cultivated grasslands
and meadows, 1'270 green-hill pasture, 70 in plantations,
and the remainder heath, moss-land, and water.
The surface is much diversified in appearance, and is
naturally formed into two distinct tracts. Of these, one
is wholly arable, and ornamented by the beautiful water
of Kilbirnie loch on its eastern limit, and the winding
stream of the Garnoch running from north to south.
The other is marked by hill pastures, bog, and moorland,
and has a very irregular surface: it rises first into
lofty uplands, and these are succeeded by dreary tracts
of moss and heath, and ranges of barren and uninviting
hills, the highest of which, called the hill of Staik, is
1691 feet above the level of the sea, and commands
prospects the most extensive, varied, and beautiful.
Kilbirnie loch contains trout, perch, roach, pike, and
abundance of eels. The Garnoch and the Maich, also,
are good trouting-streams. The former has its source
in the hill of Staik, and runs in a south-eastern direction;
about a mile and a half from its source it forms a wild
and romantic waterfall called the Spout of Garnock, and
some miles further down descends along a well-wooded
ravine, passes the village, and then pursues its course
through the parishes of Dairy and Kilwinning to the
sea at Irvine. The Maich runs along the north-eastern
boundary of the parish, nearly parallel with the Garnock;
and after a course of about five miles in a deep channel,
through lonely moorlands, with very little interesting
scenery about its banks, except when, like the Garnock,
passing one or two favoured spots, it falls into the loch of Kilbirnie.
The SOIL comprises several varieties, with numerous
modifications and admixtures. In the lower, or southern,
part of the parish is a very fertile alluvial loam,
which, higher up the Garnock, assumes the character
of a rich clayey loam. Towards the cast, near Kilbirnie
loch, and along part of the Maich, the soil is a light red
clay, incumbent on a stiff clayey subsoil. West of the
Garnock, clayey loam is again found, and also a tenacious
clay mixed with sand, crossed with stripes of meadow
land. The soil of the higher ground is a light, dry, and
fertile earth, resting on trap and limestone, and well
suited to pasture; tlic moorish uplands consist of mossy
tracts lying on clay, much interspersed with pools of
stagnant water. The produce comprehends all the
usual white and green crops; but wheat is now cultivated
only to a very limited extent, the returns for
several years having been unsatisfactory, in consequence,
principally, of the humidity and coldness of the climate,
and till' moist retentive nature of the subsoil. The
farms vary much in size; thr)He under the plough are
from fifty to IHO acreĞ, and the rotation system of husbandry
iH followed. There is a corn-mill in the parish.
to which all the lands are thirled; and fifteen of the farms
have threshing-mills. On the lower grounds the inclosures
are chiefly ditches and thorn-hedges, while those
on the higher grounds and pastures are stone walls; and
in addition to the great improvements effected during
the present century by liming and draining, some superior
farm-houses have been built, with good offices:
the old, ill-constructed, thatched tenements, however,
are still numerous. The sheep, of which upwards of
2000 are kept, are principally the black-faced, and fed
on the moorlands; but a few crosses of various English
breeds are to be seen on the arable farms. There are
about 5.50 milch-cows and 6OO or 700 head of cattle,
mostly of the Cunninghame breed, to the selection of
which, and the management of the dairy, much attention
is paid: the horses used in husbandry are of the Clydesdale
kind. The strata of the parish comprise coal of
several descriptions, freestone, limestone, and ironstone.
The coal is generally found in moderate-sized basins,
and has long been worked. Both freestone and limestone
are wrought in abundance; and the ironstone,
formerly neglected, is now wrought to a great extent by
the Glengarnoek Iron Company, who have a number of
smelting-furnaces in operation. The annual value of real
property in Kilbirnie is £76*8.
The plantations were chiefly formed in the early part
of the present century; but they are of little interest;
there are a few fine old trees in the vicinity of Kilbirnie
House and the mansion of Ladyland. Kilbirnie House,
sometimes called the Place of Kilbirnie, is situated a
mile westward of the village, and embraces fine views of
the vale of Kilbirnie loch and the river Garnock, with
the country beyond. It consists of an ancient quadrilateral
tower, and a modern addition built about 16'27,
extending at right angles from its eastern side, the whole
forming a large commanding edifice. The structure was
accidentally destroyed by fire in the year 1757, leaving
a ruin which time has since been gradually desolating;
and all the beautiful wood that once surrounded it, with
the ornamental grounds and approaches, have nearly
disappeared. The old house of Ladyland, with the exception
of a small portion, was demolished in 1815; and
in the following year, an elegant and spacious mansion
was built by the proprietor, which is situated on a gentle
eminence, and adorned with some thriving plantations,
intermixed with fine old trees. The village consists principally
of a hmg street lying along the right bank of the
river Garnock, and a shorter one extending westward
from its upper end. Its general appearance is neat,
clean, and interesting: many of the houses, which are
of a light-coloured freestone, have been but lately built;
and the population, now amounting to 1500 or I6OO, has
been doubled within the last thirty years, through the
progress of manufactures in the locality. The houses
are mostly lighted with gas, procured partly from a
power-loom manufactory, and partly from the gas-work
of Mr. John Allan, erected at bis own expense, and capable
of supplying half the village.
In the beginning of the present century, a small cotton
factory was estabhshed, which, being burnt down in
18.11, was rebuilt on an enlarged scale. This establishment,
in 1834, was sold to a Glasgow merchant, who
converted it into a spinning power-loom manufactory,
on an extensive footing; the machinery is driven by
two steam-engines, and the works employ altogether
350 persons. In 1834, also, a mill was erected for the
spinning of flax; the machinery is impelled by steampower,
and the works employ 150 hands. On the opposite
side of the river is a bleachfield, in full operation,
where about 140,0001b. of linen thread-yarn are annually
bleached for the manufacturers of Beith, besides
which, 90,000lb. of coloured thread are finished; the
whole engaging from ninety to 100 hands. The proprietors
have lately erected, near these works, a mill for spinning
flax. About 160 hand-loom weavers, also, reside
at Kilbirnie, who are engaged in the usual kinds of work
given by the Glasgow and Paisley manufacturers; and
150 females are occupied in ornamental work on muslin.
A rope-work is likewise in operation, employing twenty
men and boys; the produce is chiefly sold at Paisley.
A sub-post office in the village communicates with Beith
twice a day; the turnpike-road from Dairy to Lochwinnoch
runs in a north-eastern direction across the
lower part of the parish, and another, to Largs, intersects
it on the west. There are also two good parish
roads, and several bridges, opening up easy communication
in every direction. The Glasgow and Ayr railway
proceeds to the south, on the eastern verge of Kilbirnie
loch, where the line attains its summit level, which is
seventy feet above the Glasgow terminus, and nineteen
miles from that station; it then continues its course on
the east of the Garnock river. Near the northern extremity
of the loch is the Beith station on the line, and
near the southern extremity the Kilbirnie station. The
coke furnaies of the railway company, employed in
manufacturing the coke consumed by the locomotives,
are situated at Kilbirnie. The agricultural produce of
the parish is disposed of at Paisley, Glasgow, and several
neighbouring places. A fair called Brinnan's, a term
corrupted from St. Brandane, the apostle of the Orkneys,
is held on the third Wednesday in May, O. S., and being
the largest horse-market in the west of Scotland, is attended
by a great concourse of people. Coopers' work
and culinary utensils are also sold at it in great quantities,
and general business is transacted extensively. A
fair held on the first Tuesday in July, and one on the
last Tuesday in October, have dwindled away.
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 £193,
with a manse, and a glebe of nearly nine acres, valued
at £18 per annum. Kilbirnie church, situated about
half a mile south of the village, is one of the most
ancient in the west of Scotland, the body of it having
been built a considerable time before the Reformation.
An aisle, called the Glengarnock aisle, bears the date of
1597; but it is considered to be a much more recent
addition. The most modern part of the structure is the
Craufurd gallery, erected opposite to the aisle in 1654
by Sir John Craufurd, according to an inscription in
relief over one of the windows. The church has long been
an object of interest to the antiquary on account of the
rich carvings in oak, profusely displayed on the gallery
and on the pulpit: the gallery also exhibits the armorial
bearings of twelve of the ancestors of John, first Viscount
Garnock, by whose order the edifice was repaired,
and the ornamental work executed, about the year 1700.
In the churchyard is the tomb of Captain Thomas Craufurd,
of Jordanhill, who performed the remarkable exploit
of storming the castle of Dumbarton in 1571: the
monument, built of sandstone, is nine feet long and six
wide, and through an aperture in the east end are faintly
seen the recumbent efligies of the captain in a military
garb, and of his lady in the costume of the times. There
is a place of worship in the village for the Reformed
Presbytery; and the members of the Free Church, also,
have a place of worship. The parochial school affords
instruction in Latin, Greek, practical mathematics, and
book-keeping, in addition to the usual branches; the
master has a salary of £'25. 13. 4., with a school-house
and dwelling, erected in IbIS, two acres of land, and
about £42 fees. A subscription library was established
in 1820, and now contains upwards of 500 volumes. A
society was instituted a few years since for granting
relief in sickness, called "the Kilbirnie Gardeners' Society";
it has above 100 members, and £100 stock.
The chief relic of antiquity is the ruin of Glengarnock
Castle, situated on a precipitous ridge overhanging the
river Garnoch, about two miles north of Kilbirnie.
The date of the erection of this extensive fortification is
uncertain; but it is conjectured to have existed in the
time of the de Morcvilles.