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Girvan Parish
GIRVAN, a parish on the sea-coast of the
district of Carrick,
Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north by Kirkoswald; on the
east by Dailly and Barr; on the south by Colmonell; and on the
west by the frith of Clyde. It measures in extreme length,
from north to south, 9 miles; in extreme breadth, 6 miles; in
minimum breadth 2 miles; and in superficial area, 19,000
acres. A ridge of almost mountainous hills runs, from the sea
not far from the southern extremity, north-eastward through the
parish, and sends offspurs, or has parallel elevations on its
south-east side. The southern district is, in
consequence, chiefly pastoral; yet its hills are for the most
part covered with verdure, and, even in instances where they
are heathy, they have patches and intermixtures of grass.
The diagonal hill-range, as seen from the town of Girvan,
presents an imposing and almost magnificent aspect, and sends
up its summits seldom less than 900 feet above the level of
the sea, and, in one instance, 1,200 feet. The northern
division has a considerable proportion of flat ground, but is
undulated and beautified with elevations, and, on the whole,
wears a tumulated appearance ; yet it is finely cultivated,
and rich in the properties of agricultural worth. The soil,
though very various, is, in general, a dry light mould, on a
sandy or gravelly bottom. The coast-line, upwards of 8 miles
in length, is over one-third of the distance bold and rocky,
and over two-thirds of it flat; and in the latter and larger
part, the beach is strewn with large whinstones, and, at the
recess of the tide, is extensively carpeted with sea-weed.
Several indigenous brooks rise in the central and southern
uplands, and flow respectively to Girvan water, and the sea;
the most considerable being Lendal-burn, which joins the sea at
Carlton-bay. Another somewhat bulky indigenous brook, called
the Assel, flows along the eastern margin, to fall into
Stinchar water in the conterminous parish of Colmonell. The
climate of the parish is much more moist than that of the
inland or eastern parts of Scotland, and moister still in the
upland division of it than in the plain. Coal, though
abundant in the neighbouring parish of Dailly, does not seem to
stretch within the limits of Girvan. Limestone is plentiful in
the eastern division, and has for a quarter of a century been
somewhat extensively worked. Excellent copper-ore has been
found, and is supposed to exist in considerable quantity.
Puddingstone is the most plentiful mineral, and, in remarkable
congeries, stretches for a considerable distance along the
beach. Whinstone, both grey and blue, occurs with sufficient
frequency to furnish materials for all the local buildings.
A small quantity of gypsum and a valuable bed of shell-marl
were at one period discovered. Only a small number of acres
is under plantation; and nowhere, excepting a few patches of
brushwood, is there any natural forest. Vestiges of five camps
are traceable, all near the sea, and one of them distinguished
by an encincturing of two parallel ditches. The parish is
traversed, along the shore, by the mail-road between Glasgow
and Portpatrick, and, along its eastern verge, by a road
between Old Dailly and Ballantrae; and it has, in addition,
four branch or cross-roads. Population, in 1801, 2,260; in
1831, 6,430. Houses 903. Assessed property, in 1815,
£9,796. - Girvan is in the presbytery of Ayr, and synod of
Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, the Crown. Stipend £269 12s. 2d.;
glebe £12. Unappropriated teinds £347 8s. 4d. Four places of
worship in the parish, three of them dissenting, are all
situated in the town. The parish-church was built about the
year 1770, and was extended by the addition of an aisle about
30 years later. Sittings 830. — The United Secession
congregation was established in 1815; and their place of
worship was built in the preceding year. Sittings 549. Stipend
£100. — The Roman Catholic congregation consists of a
fluctuating population, all Irish; and has for its place of
meeting, a school-house rented at £6. The minister or priest
resides in Ayr, and officiates here from seven to nine Sabbaths
in the year. The Wesleyan Methodist congregation had 20 members
24 years ago; and meets in a Sabbath school-house of its own,
built in 1823, at a cost of about £120. Sittings about
200. - According to a survey made by the parochial minister and
one of his elders in 1836, the population was then 6,500; of
whom about 5,000 belonged to the Establishment, about 1,000
belonged to other denominations, and 500 were not known to be
connected with any religious body. - The parochial schoolmaster
has £34 4s. 4½d. of salary, with £80 fees, £28 10s. other
emoluments; and is attended by a maximum of 155 scholars, — 40 of whom
are poor children taught free. Five unendowed schools are attended by
a maximum of 295 scholars; and 3 of them afford a wide range of
tuition, including practical mathematics and
Latin and Greek. - The church
of Girvan, like several other churches in Ayrshire, was
dedicated to St. Cuthbert, — peculiarly a Saxon saint; and seems
therefore not to have been older than the end of the 11th
century, when Ayrshire, after the change of the Scottish
government, was brought completely under the influence of the
Anglo-Saxon settlers. The church was granted to the monks of
Crossraguel, and remained in their possession till the
Reformation; and it was served by a vicar, under the
surveillance of the bishop of Glasgow. In the ancient parish of
Girvan — which was much larger than the present — were several
chapels. In the south of it, on an eminence overlooking the
Stinchar, about 2 miles west-south-west from the present church
of Barr, stood the chapel of Kirkdomine, dedicated to the Holy
Trinity. The ruins still remain, and commemorate the name; and
they serve also to give a rallying-point and a designation to a
great annual fair, called Kirkdomine fair, held on the last
Saturday of May. In the north of the parish, on the lands of
Cragach, near the coast, upward of 1½ mile north-north-east of
the town of Girvan, stood Chapel-Donan, dedicated to a
Scottish saint, called Donan, of the 9th century. Both this
chapel and the former one were, like the parish-church, in the
hands of the Crossraguel monks. In 1617, the patronage of
Girvan, with other property of Crossraguel, was annexed to the
see of Dunblane; but, on the abolition of episcopacy in 1689,
it was vested in the Crown. In 1653, the south-east part of the
ancient parish, lying on the river Stinchar, was detached and
made a part of the new parish of Barr; but, at the same
date, Girvan received some accessions of territory both on the
north and on the south.
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