Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

KILMAURS
station on the Glasgow, Barrhead, and Kilmarnock
Joint railway, 2J miles NN¥ of Kilmarnock. It sprang
from the ancient hamlet of Cunninghame, which took
the name of Kilmaurs in the 13th centnry from a church
dedicated either to the Virgin Mary or to a Scottish
saint called Maure, who is said to have died in 899, and
it occupies a pleasant site on a gentle northward ascent,
and chiefly consists of one main street, with some lanes
and houses hehind. It adjoins an old mansion, the
Place, which, long a seat of the Earls of Glencairn,
was inhabited in the latter part of last century by the
Countess of Eglinton ; and a neighbouring farm, Jock's
Thorn, contains vestiges of the original or more ancient
residence of the Glencairn family, to whom Kilmaurs
gave the title of Baron both while they were Earls of
Glencairn and for 53 years earlier. In 1527 it was
made a burgh of barony at the instance of Cuthbert,
Earl of Glencairn, and his son William, Lord Kilmaurs,
enjoyed, under its charter, some peculiar privileges
which have gradually dwindled away into insignificance ;
and in connection therewith long figured as a consider-
able market town and as an influential seat of popula-
tion, before Kilmarnock had risen into note. It was
also distinguished for the manufacture of cutlery, said
to have equalled or surpassed the modern produce of
Sheffield and Birmingham, and so famous for keenness
of edge as to give rise to a provincial proverb, ' As gleg
as a Kilmaurs whittle.' Now its inhabitants are for the
most part employed in shoe and bonnet factories and
in the neighbouring coal and iron mines ; and it has
a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and tele-
graph departments, 2 inus, gasworks, a small town hall
with a steeple, and fairs on the second Wednesday of
June o. s. and 11 Nov. The parish church, originally
collegiate for a provost and 6 prebendaries, is said to
have been built in 1404, and contains 500 sittings. The
Free church was built soon after the Disruption ; and
the U.P. church, rebuilt in 1864, contains 400 sit-
tings. The burial aisle of the Earls of Glencairn,
adjacent to the parish church, was erected by the
seventh Earl in 1600, and contains a beautiful but
defaced cenotaph of William, ninth Earl, the Lord
High Chancellor of Scotland, who in 1664 was buried
in St Giles, Edinburgh. Pop. (1851) 10S3, (1S61) 1174,
(1871) 1145, (1881) 1203.
The parish, containing also the villages of Crosshouse
and Gatehead, is bounded W and N by Dreghorn, E
and SE by Kilmarnock, and S and SW by Dundonald.
Its utmost length, from NE to SW, is 6 miles ; its
utmost breadth is 2f miles ; and its area is 5940 acres,
of which 40^ are water. The river Irvine winds 4J
miles west-north-westward along all the Dundonald
border ; Garrier Burn, running 6£ miles south-west-
ward, and Carmel Water, running 4J furlongs westward
to the Irvine, trace nearly all the boundary with Dreg-
horn ; and, higher up, Carmel Water, coming in from
the NW corner of Kilmarnock parish, and here very
often called Kilmaurs Water, flows 5 miles south-west-
ward through the interior, cutting it into two nearly equal
parts. Sinking at the south-western corner to 45 feet
above sea-level, the surface thence rises gently north-
eastward to 208 at Fardalehill, 216 near Busbiehead,
and 308 at Newland — vantage grounds that command
delightful prospects over Cunninghame and Kyle, and
across the Firth of Clyde to the Arran and Argyllshire
mountains. The rocks are carboniferous ; coal and iron
are largely worked ; and the soil, for the most part, is
deep, strong, and of high fertility. Scarcely an acre
of land is unproductive ; and the beauty of the parish
is greatly enhanced by clumps of wood. Agriculture
lias undergone vast improvement, and the dairy hus-
bandry is eminently excellent. The chief antiquity is
Busbie Castle, on the Carmel's right bank, J mile NE
of Crosshouse. Mansions are Craig, Knockentiber,
Thornton, Tour, and Towerhill ; and 8 proprietors hold
each an annual value of more, 10 of less, than £500.
Since 1882 giving oil' its western half to the q. s. parish of
Crosshouse, Kilmaurs is in the presbytery of Irvine and
synod of Glasgow and Ayr ; the living is worth £480.
378
KILMICHAEL-GLASSARY
Two public schools, Crosshouse and Irvine Vennel, with
respective accommodation for 450 and 290 children, had
(1881) an average attendance of 311 and 215, and grants
of £262, 17s. and £93, 9s. Valuation (1860) £17,676,
(1883) £22,494, 10s., plus £5211 for railways. Pop.
(1801) 1288, (1831) 2130, (1861) 3526, (1871) 3449, (18S1)
3704, of whom 1653 are in the ecclesiastical parish. —
Ord. Sur., sh. 22, 1865.
Kilmelfort, a hamlet in Kilninver parish, Lorn dis-
trict, Argyllshire, at the head of Loch Melfort, 15J
miles S of Oban and 14 N of Kilmartin. It has a post
office under Lochgilphead, with money order and
savings' bank departments. See Kilninver.
Kilmeny, an ancient parish in Islay island, Argyll-
shire, whose church stands 4 miles SSW of Port
Askaig. It is now incorporated quoad civilia with
Killarrow parish, hut was constituted quoad sacra a
separate parish, first by ecclesiastical authority in 1826,
next by civil authority in 1849. It is in the presbytery
of Islay and Jura and synod of Argyll ; the stipend is
£171. Pop. (1871) 924, (1881) 881.
Kilmichael, an estate, with an old mansion, in Glen
cloy, Arran island, Buteshire, li mile SSW of Brodick.
In 1307 the estate was given by King Robert I. to an
ancestor of the Fullarton family, called MacLewie or
MacLewis ; and it gave his name in the modified form
of cloy to the glen. The present proprietor, Miss
Fullarton, owns 3632 acres, valued at £622 per annum,
and holds the hereditary office of coroner of Arran. —
Ord. Sur., sh. 21, 1870.
Kilmichael. See Campbeltown.
Kilmichael-Glassary or Glassary, a village and a
parish in Argyll district, Argyllshire. The village
stands, 50 feet above sea-level, on the right bank of the
Add, 4 miles N by W of Lochgilphead, under which it
has a post office. Once a place of some little note, as
seat of the baron-bailie courts of the Campbells of Ach-
nabreck, it has dwindled down to a mere church hamlet,
but retains two cattle fairs on the last Wednesday of
May and the Tuesday before the last Wednesday of
October.
The parish, containing also the town of Lochgilp-
head, the hamlet of Lochgair, and part of the village
of Ford-Lochawe, is bounded NW by Kilmartin and
the upper 5| miles of Loch Awe, NE by Kilchrenan-
Dalavich and Inveraray, SE and S by Loch Fyne, and
SW and W by South Knapdale, North Knapdale, and
Kilmartin. Its utmost length, from NNE to SSW, is
15f miles ; its utmost width is 8J miles ; and its area
is 94 square miles or 60,229 acres. The river Add,
formed by two head-streams at an altitude of 600
feet above sea-level, and winding south-westward across
the parish on its way to inner Loch Crinan, is the
principal stream ; and of numerous fresh-water lakes
the larger are Loch Ederline (4 x 2J furl. ; 122 feet)
on the Kilmartin border, Loch Leacann (7x3 furl. ; 1020
feet) on the Inveraray border, and Fincharn Loch (5 x J
furl. ; 900 feet), Loch Gaineamhach (9 x 1J furl. ; 856 feet),
Loch Leathan (4J x 2 furl. ; 240 feet), and Loch Glashan
(1J x J mile ; 347 feet) in the interior. From the shores
of Loch Fyne to those of Loch Awe extends a wide
desolate tract of hill and moss, which, including much
bleak pasture, wild moorland, and irreclaimable waste,
attains 1030 feet near Lochan Dubh, 704 near Craig-
murrail, 772 at Dun Alva, 1377 at Beinn Ghlas, 1421
at Beinn Laoigh, and 1504 at Cruach Mhic Chaolie.
The predominant rocks are mica slate, clay slate, and
chlorite slate. Porphyry protrudes through the clay
slates at Cumlodden in masses 700 to 800 feet high, and
extends over a tract of several miles ; limestone, too, is
plentifully interspersed through the slates ; and granite
and porphyry boulders are scattered over the hills.
Nearly fifty years since a copper mine was opened unsuc-
cessfully on Brainchaoille farm. The soil along Loch
Fyne is gravelly, but to the SW and along Loch Awe is
mostly a deep dark fertile loam. Peat occurs in every
part, and at every elevation. Antiquities are the ruins
of Fionncharn Castle on Loch Awe, of four hill-forts,
and of four pre-Reformation chapels — Kilbride in the