|
Dalry
DALRY,(1) a parish near the centre of the
district of
Cunningham, Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north and
north-east by Kilbirnie; on the east by Beith; on the
south by Kilwinning; on the southwest by Ardrossan; on the
west by West Kilbride; and on the north-west by Largs. Its
extreme length, from north to south, is about 10 miles;
and its breadth varies from 1½ to 9. It is narrowest in
the middle; is nearly dissevered toward the north by the
parish of Largs; sends out an arm 3 miles northward from
its main body; and is, in consequence, of extremely
irregular outline. The surface consists principally of
four vales, with their intervening and overshadowing
uplands. The principal vale stretches south-westward
along its eastern division, and varies from a mile to ½ a
mile in breadth. This vale is watered by the
meanderings of the river Garnock, and abounds in fertility
and the beauties of agricultural landscape. The other
parts of the parish, though well-watered with the Rye, the
Gaaf, and other streams flowing south-eastward and
falling into the Garnock, are in general hilly, and in
some parts, especially toward the north, almost
mountainous. Bedland-hill, between the Gaaf and the
Rye, rises 946 feet; and Carwinning-hill, to the eastward
of the Rye, rises 634 above the level of the sea. At
Auchinskich, 2 miles from the village, in a romantic and
sylvan dell, is a natural cave, 183 feet in length, and
from 5 to 12 in breadth and height, stretching away into
the bowels of a precipitous limestone crag, and ceiled and
panelled with calcareous incrustations which give it
the appearance of Gothic arched work. Coal, at a
comparatively inconsiderable depth, is, in three places,
worked from seams of from 2½ to 5 feet thick. Limestone
abounds in strata of unusual thickness, and in general
imbosoms numerous petrifactions. Iron-stone
frequently occurs. Agates have been found in the
Rye. In the holm-lands of the parish the soil is a deep
alluvial loam; along the base of the hills it is light and
dry; in some districts the soil is clayey and retentive;
and in others it is reclaimed and cultivated moss. The
parish is intersected by the Glasgow and Ayr railway, and
is in other respects well-provided with means of
communication. On the summit of Carwinning-hill are
vestiges of an ancient fortification, two acres in area,
and formed of three concentric circular walls. Near the
end of the village is a mound called Courthill, — one of
those moats, so common in Scotland, on which justice was
administered. Urns and other antiquities have, in
various localities, been dug up. In this parish the
insurrection of 1666 broke out against the Privy council's
measures for the erection of episcopacy. Dairy was the
birth-place of Sir Bryce Blair, who resisted the
usurpation of Edward I., and the home of Captain Thomas
Crawford, who
captured Dumbarton castle in the reign of Mary. -
The village of Dalry is beautifully situated on a rising
ground on the right bank of the Garnock, immediately below
the confluence of the Rye with that river, and not far
above the confluence of the Gaaf. It commands an extensive
view to the south and the
north-east; and, owing to the peculiar nature of its site,
and the liability to inundation of the mountain streams by
which its environs on three sides are washed, it has
sometimes the appearance of lifting its head from a lake,
and being seated on an island. It is 16 miles from
Paisley, 14 from Kilmarnock, 5 from Beith, and 9 from
Saltcoats. Of no higher origin than the beginning of the
17th century, and long existing as a mere hamlet, it has
eventually attained considerable prosperity, and at
present contains a population of upwards of 2,000. There
are five streets three of which converge, and form a sort
of square or open area near the centre of the town. The
streets indicate the want of police, yet enjoy the luxury
of being lighted up at night with gas. The principal
manufacture is weaving, which employs about 500
individuals. Nearly 50 persons are employed also in a
woollen carding and spinning-mill. Here are the
parish-church, two dissenting churches, three schools, and
a number of inns and other appurtenances of village
importance. There are 6 annual fairs, the chief of which
is held on the last day of July. The town as well as its
vicinity will probably now rise rapidly in prosperity,
from its being touched by the Glasgow and Ayr railway.
Population of the town and parish, in 1801, 2,815; in
1831, 3,739. Houses 503. Assessed property, in 1815,
£13,141. — Dalry is in the presbytery of Irvine, and synod
of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Blair of Blair. Stipend £231
10s. 6d.; glebe £24. Unappropriated teinds £575 9s. 10d.
The parish-church was built in 1771. Sittings 941. Before
the Reformation the church belonged to the monastery of
Kilwinning, and was served by a vicar. On a rising ground
to the east of the Garnock, about a mile from the present
village, formerly stood a chapel, vestiges of which have
not long ago disappeared. At a greater distance from the
village are still some ruins of another ancient
chapel - One of the meeting-houses in the
village belongs to the United Secession, and the other to
the body of Original Burghers, part of whom recently
became reunited to the Established church. Sittings in the
former 508; in the latter 2S2. Stipend of the former £110;
of the latter £70. According to a survey made in 1835,
there were 2,762 in connection with the Establishment, and
927 dissenters within the parish - There are in the parish
4 schools, 3 of which are nonparochial.
Parish-schoolmaster's salary £32 15s. 9d., with £65
school-fees.
{1 Chalmers derives this name — which was formerly written Dalrye — from the Gaelic Dal, 'a valley,' and Rye, the
name of one of the streams by which the parish is
intersected. But the writer in the New Statistical Account
prefers a derivation from Dal and Righ, 'a king,' making
the name mean 'the King's valley;' and he observes that a
part of the site of the village is still called Crottanry,
which he supposes to be a corruption of Croft an Righ,
'the Croft of the king.'}
|
