Records of the clan and name of Fergusson, Ferguson and Fergus

FERGUSSONS IN AYRSHIRE 337
FERGUSSON.
After much inquiry and investigation it has not been
found possible, from any documents now extant, to ascertain
the origin of this family. That it is of great antiquity there
is no doubt. Certain it is that there is no tradition in the
country, nor, as far as has been discovered, any vestige, either
in the public records or in the charter-chest of any private
family, of the lands of Kilkerran having ever belonged to any
other name or family. The old castle of Kilkerran — a build-
ing almost entire, and of cut stone — appears, from the form of
its architecture, to have been built at least as long ago as the
thirteenth or fourteenth century, and is one of the most
curious remains of that kind of work in Scotland : but by
whom it was built it is now impossible to ascertain.
[Kilkerran 1 is a district in the parish of Dailly, in Ayrshire,
through which runs the water of Girvan. The whole parish
is one immense valley, exhibiting as great a variety of surface
as any part of equal extent in the kingdom, consisting of
gentle and irregular slopes, interspersed with knolls, glens,
and meadows, thickly studded both with natural and artifi-
cial woods, and contrasting finely with the bleak and barren
moors which occupy the summits of the surrounding hills.
The most romantic part of the parish is that district immedi-
ately round Kilkerran, which is now likely to become, an
object of curiosity to the tourist, as the good taste of the
present possessor has made its beauties more accessible by a
path of considerable length cut along the verge of the preci-
pice, and overlooking the dashing torrent, and also added to
them by the judicious distribution of modern planting. This
is still called the ' Lady Glen,' from an ancient chapel, now
mouldering into dust, at the lower extremity of this wild
and romantic dell.]
The want of information from the public records of the de-
scent of this family is probably owing to the lands composing
the barony of Kilkerran — though now, and for a long period of
time, held of the crown — having been formerly held of the
Earls of Cassilis : and the whole of the old writings of that
1 [Passages in brackets are notes in original.]
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