Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Ballads and songs of Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE FAIRY LADY OF DUNURE.
that he had taken shelter in the Castle of Ayi% pressed foi-ward to
Dunure, in pursuit of one of his great captains, and there captured
both him and the fort. For this service Alexander III. rewarded
M'Kinnon by a grant of the castle, and certain lands around it. The
following is this writer's account of the affair : — •
" The Black Book of Scone sets their (the Kennedies) beginning to be in the
reign of King Malcolm the Second, who was crowned in the year of G-od 1010
years, and was the fourscore King of Scotland. There was with the King, one
M'Kenane of the Isles, who was slain by Danes at the battle of Murluk ; and
of him came the M'Kenane of the Isles, who ' bruikis ' (possesses) the lands of
Stroworddell to this hour. This M'Kenane of the Isles' succession was at the
time of King Donald's reign, when the Danes got possession of the whole Isles,
banished by them in Ireland, where he remained to the reign of King Alexan-
der the Third, and then came to King Alexander before the battle of Largs,
with threescore of his name and servants ; and after that King Acho was de-
feated, he fled to Ayr, and there took shipping. The principal man that pur-
sued him was M'Kenane, with his two sons ; and after that the King of Danes
was received in the Castle of Ayr, M'Kenane followed on a Lord or great Cap-
tain of the Danes, to a crag in Carrick, whereon there was a strength built by
the Danes, low by the sea side ; the which strength M'Kenane and his sons
took, and slew the captain and all that was therein. For the which deed, this
M'Kenane got the same strength from King Alexander, with certain lands ly-
ing thereto ; the which he gave to his second son, and there was the first be-
ginning of the name of Kennedy in the mainland. On the strength and crag
there is now a fair castle, which the chiefs of the lowland Kennedies took their
style of, for a long space, and were called Lairds of Dunure, becaiise of the
don of the hill above that house. Of this house the rest of that name are
coming."
This alleged origin of the Kennedies is considered fabulous, the name
having been known in Carrick previous to the battle of Largs, which
was fought in 1263. In " "Wood's Peerage," the descent of the fami-
ly is traced back to Duncan de Carrick, in the reign of Malcolm IV.,
Carrick or Kennedy, as it is said, being the patronymic indiscrimin-
ately used down to the time of Sir John Kennedy of Dunure, found-
er of the collegiate church in Maybole, and who obtained the lands
and barony of Cassillis from Maijorie, heiress of Sir John Montgo-
merie, Knight, of Stair. This occurred about 1373. It is seldom,
however, that tradition is totally at variance with fact. The simi-
larity in the ancient armorial bearings is presumptive that the island
and mainland Kennedies were of the same stock. In the Highlands
there arc several small clans of the name of Kennedy — ^in Gaelic, M'Ur-
ick or M'Rorie — and it is rather a striking coincidence that the isolat-
ed conical mount on which the flag-staff is erected at Dunure, near
the mouth of the harbour, is called Port-Rorie, evidently meaning the
port of M'Rorie or Kennedy.
The Abbey of Crosraguel was founded in 1244 or 1245 — so the
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