Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

AYRSHIRE
9th century, but was defeated and slain in a battle at
Dalmellington. Haco, King of Norway, in the course
of his contest for the sovereignty of the Hebrides, made
descents upon it in 1263, and suffered overwhelming
discomfiture in a famous battle at Largs. The forces
of Edward I. of England, in the course of the wars of
the succession, made considerable figure in it, particu-
larly in Kyle and in the N of Carrick ; and suffered
humiliating reverses from Wallace and from Bruce at
Ayr, at Turnberry, and particularly at Loudon Hill.
The career of Wallace began in the vicinity of Irvine ;
a signal exploit of his occurred at Ayr ; the grand coup
for wrenching the territory from the English was struck
at Loudon ; and the first parliament under Bruce was
held at Ayr. The county, as a whole, played a vigor-
ous, an honourable, and a persistent part throughout
all the struggle which issued in Scottish independence.
Nor was it less distinguished in the subsequent, higher,
nobler struggle, from the time of Mary till the time of
James VII., for achieving religious liberty. Both
Wishart and Knox pursued their labours frequently in
it ; and many of the leaders of the Covenanting move-
ments against the oppressive policy of Charles II. and
James VII., either were natives of its soil, rallying
around them multitudes of zealous neighbours, or were
strangers welcomed and supported by ready, generous
local enthusiasm. Much of the history of the later
Covenanters, specially what relates to the antecedents
of the fights at Drumclog, at Kullion-Green, and at
Airdsmoss, reads almost like a local history of Ayr-
shire. So conspicuously did the Ayrshire men contend
for the rights of' conscience, that they became the special
object of the savage punishment inflicted by the Govern-
ment, in 1678, in the letting loose of the wild well-known
' Highland Host. ' 'We might from these circumstances, '
says Chalmers, ' suppose that the people of Ayrshire
would concur zealously in the Revolution of 1688. As
one of the western shires, Ayrshire sent its full pro-
portion of armed men to Edinburgh to protect the
Convention of Estates. On the 6th of April 16S9, the
forces that had come from the western counties, having
received thanks from the Convention for their seasonable
service, immediately departed with their arms to their
respective homes. They were offered some gratification ;
but they would receive none, saying that they came
to save and serve their country, not to enrich them-
selves at the nation's expense. It was at the same time
ordered "that the inhabitants of the town of Ayr should
be kept together till further orders. " On the 14th of
May arms were ordered to be given to Lord Bargeny,
an Ayrshire baronet. On the 25th of May, in answer to
a letter from the Earl of Eglinton, the Convention
ordered "that the heritors and fencible men in the shire
of Ayr be instantly raised and commanded in conformity
to the appointment of the Estates. " But of such proofs
of the revolutionary principles of Ayrshire enough !
The men of Ayr not only approved of the Revolution,
but they drew their swords in support of its establish-
ment and principles. On that memorable occasion not
only were the governors changed, but new principles
were adopted, and better practices were introduced ;
and the Ayrshire people were gratified by the aboli-
tion of Episcopacy and by the substitution of Presby-
terianism.'
Antiquities, of various kinds, are numerous. Cairns,
stone circles, and suchlike Caledonian remains are at
Sorn, Galston, and other places. Vestiges of a Roman
road are in the vicinity of Ayr. Traces of Danish
camps are at Dundonald and in the neighbourhood of
Ardrossan. Mediaeval castles, or remains of them, are
at Loch Doon, Turnberry, Dundonald, and Sorn. Fine
old monastic ruins are at Crossraguel and Kilwinning ;
and a ruined church, immortalised by Burns, is at Allo-
way. The most ancient families are the Auchinlecks,
the Boswells, the Boyds, the Cathcarts, the Crawfords,
the Cunninghams, the Dalrymples, the Dunlops, the
Fullartons, the Kennedys, the Lindsays, the Mont-
gomerys, and the Wallaces. The oldest peerage con-
nected with the county is the Earldom of Carrick, which
106
AYTON
belonged to Bruce, and belongs now to the Prince of
Wales. Other peerage titles are Baron Kilmaurs,
created about 1450, united to the Earldom of Glencairn
in 1503, and dormant since 1796 ; Earl of Eglinton,
created in 1508, and conjoined with the title of Baron
Ardrossan in the peerage of the United Kingdom in
1806 ; Earl of Cassillis, created in 1511, and conjoined
with the title of Marquis of Ailsa in the peerage of
the United Kingdom in 1S01 ; Baron Ochiltree, created
in 1543, and dormant since 1675 ; Earl of Loudoun,
created in 1633 ; Viscount of Ayr, created in 1622, and
conjoined since 1633 to the Earldom of Dumfries, and
since 1796 to the Marquisate of Bute ; Viscount Irvine,
created in 1611, and extinct since 177S ; Earl of Kilmar-
nock, created in 1661, and attainted in 1716 ; and Earl
of Dundonald, created in 1669, and united then with
the title of Baron Cochrane of Paisley and Ochiltree.
Distinguished natives of Ayrshire have been very nume-
rous ; the greatest of them has almost given it a new
name — the 'Land of Burns.' See Jas. Paterson, His-
tory of the County of Ayr (2 vols., 1847-52); Arch. Stur-
rock, ' Report on the Agriculture of Ayrshire ' in Trans.
HigU. and Ag. Soe. (1866); and Thos. Farrall 'On
the Ayrshire Breed of Cattle,' in same Transactions
(1876).
Ayton (anc. Eitun, ' Eye-town '), a village and a coast
parish of Berwickshire. The village stands near the left
bank of Eye Water, 2^ miles inland and J mile NW
of Ayton station on the North British, this being 7£
miles NW by W of Berwick-upon-Tweed and 49J ESE
of Edinburgh. A pleasant, well-built place, it has a
post office, with money order, savings' bank, insurance,
and telegraph departments, branches of the Commercial
and Royal Banks, gas-works, 3 inns, a volunteer hall, 2
saw-mills, and a tannery. Thursday is market-day, and
justice of peace courts are held on the first Thursday of
every month but September ; sheriff small debt courts
on the first Monday of February, the second Monday of
May, the Tuesday before the last Friday of July, and
the first Thursday of October. Places of worship are the
parish church (750 sittings) and two U.P. churches —
Summerhill (561 sittings) and Springbank (350 sittings;
rebuilt, for £1210, in 1872). The parish church, erected
(1S64-66) at a cost of £7000, is a beautiful First Pointed
structure, with nave, S aisle, transept, and chancel, a
SW spire 120 feet high, and stained-glass chancel and
transept windows. Pop. (1S31) 663, (1861) 875, (1871)
745, (1SS1)771.
The parish contains also the fishing village of Burn-
mouth, 2 J miles to the E. Bounded N by Coldingham
and Eyemouth, E by the German Ocean, SE by Mor-
dington, S by Foulden, and W by Chirnside and Col-
dingham, it has an utmost length and breadth of 3£
miles and an area of 6S32 acres, of which 105| are fore-
shore and 27 water. The coast, about 3 miles long,
forms an almost continuous but much-indented preci-
pice, rising, from N to S, to 71 feet near Nestends, 149
on Gunsgreenhill, 160 at Scout Point, 339 near Hurker,
310 on Burnmouth Hill, and 170 at Ross. The cliffs
are pierced by two or three caverns, accessible only from
the sea, and famous in smuggling annals ; three islets at
the northern extremity, during strong easterly gales,
drive the waves up in sheets of foam to a height of from
70 to 100 feet. The SE portion of the interior presents
an assemblage of softly-contoured, richly-wooded hills,
the highest of them Ayton Hill (654 feet) 1| mile SE of
the village, whilst lesser eminences are Millerton Hill,
Bastleridge (375), Ayton Cocklaw (315), Flemington
(275), and Redhall (320). The NW portion between the
Eye and the Ale, though lower is everywhere undulat-
ing, attaining 251 feet near Aytonwood House, 291 in
the Drill plantation, and 297 on the Coldingham border.
The Eye runs If mile south-eastward near or upon the
western boundary, till, striking north-eastward, it winds
for 2?i miles through the interior, next for 1J mile along
the Eyemouth border to the sea. Its scenery here is very
pretty and varied, as, too, is that of the tributary Ale,
which flows 3J miles east-south-eastward along the Col-
dingham and Eyemouth confines, and of the North British