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Muirkirk Parish
MUIRKIRK, a parish in the extreme north-east
of Kyle, Ayrshire, containing the most easterly land in the county. It
is hounded on the north and east by Lanarkshire; on the south and
southwest by Auchinleck; and on the west and north-west by Sorn and
Galstone. Its greatest length, from east to west, is 9 miles; its
greatest breadth, from Forrest-cairn to Stoney-hill, is 8½ miles; and
its area is about 58 square miles. On all sides except the west and
the north-west, or over a sweeping segment of 25 miles its boundary is
a water-shedding line of summits. The surface of the interior is a
rough, broken, dreary expanse of moorish hills, averaging from 800 to
1,000 feet in altitude, tame in outline, darkly heathy in general
dress, now rising in solitary heights, and now forming ridges which
run toward almost every point of the compass, slenderly intersected
with uninteresting valley-grounds, and nearly altogether destitute of
either grandeur or any other attraction of landscape. Cairntable, on
the boundary with Lanarkshire, near the south-east extremity, is the
highest ground, attains an altitude of l,650 feet above sea-level, and
commands, on a clear day, an extensive and diversified prospect. About
the middle of the eastern boundary, and half-a-mile inland from it,
are two artificial lakes, jointly covering 121 acres, cut out at the
beginning of the century by Messrs. Finlay & Co. of Glasgow, as
reservoirs to supply their cotton-works at Catrine. Issuing from the
first of these and traversing the second, the river Ayr runs 8 miles
westward through the parish, cutting it into very nearly equal parts.
Of numerous independent streams, all of local origin, which join it in
its progress, the chief on its right bank are Powness, Greenock, and
Whitehaugh-waters, respectively 3, 9½, and 5 miles long, and on its
left are Garpel-water and Procribe-burn, respectively 4 and 2 miles
long. The Ayr and the Greenock have a few eels, and abound with
blackish coloured trouts. Only about one-thirtieth of the area of the
parish is in tillage; about two-fifteeths have been ploughed, but
cannot fairly be reckoned arable or cultivated ground; and all the
remainder, excepting about 200 acres of plantation, amounting to
five-sixths, are either totally waste or wildly pastoral. A natural
forest waved its shadow, in the 12th century, over a large part,
perhaps nearly the whole, of the surface; and has left dreary
memorials both in such names as Netherwood and Harwood, worn by
utterly treeless farms, and in long trunks and branches deeply buried
in moss. The mountain-ash is the chief tree which appears to grow
spontaneously; it adorns the wildest scenes; and unexpectedly meets
the eye by the side of a barren rock or sequestered stream, seldom
seen except by the inhabitants of the air or the solitary shepherd and
his dock. Coal lies on both sides of the Ayr, at no greater a depth
than 6O fathoms, in six seams aggregately 30½ feet thick, and
severally 3½, 3, 7, 9, 2½, and 5½; and is mined on the most approved
plans and in very large quantities both for exportation and for local
consumpt and manufacture. Ironstone occurs in the coal-field in five
workable seams, so thick that three tons of stone are obtained under
every square yard of surface. Limestone likewise plentifully occurs,
and is worked jointly with the ironstone and the coal. Lead and
manganese have been found, but not in such quantity
as to be remuneratingly worked. -The parish is
deeply and pathetically associated with the martyrly history of the
Covenanters. Of various monuments the most remarkable is the
tomb-stone of the eminent and devout Scottish worthy, John Brown: see
article PRIESTHILL. On the top of Cairntable there was anciently,
according to tradition, a place of worship, and there are still two
large cairns. The villages are GLENBUCK [which see] and Muirkirk,
noticed below. The parish is traversed eastward by the turnpike
between Ayr mid Edinburgh, and southward by the road between Glasgow
and Dumfries by way of Strathaven. Population, in 1801, 2,560; in
1831, 2,810. Houses 442. Assessed property, in 1815, £3,820. —Muirkirk
is
in the presbytery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. Patron, the Marquis of Hastings. Stipend
£157 17s. 3d.; glebe £20. The parish-church was
built in 1813. Sittings 913. —An United Secession
congregation was established in the village of Muirkirk in 1822; and
next year built a place of worship
at the cost of £900. Sittings 380. Stipend £71. —An Independent
congregation was established in
1799 or 1800. Their place of worship, also situated
in Muirkirk, was originally two dwelling-houses, is
let as a school-room during the week, and, along
with adjacent ground, was valued, in 183G, at probably £50. Sittings
130 According to an ecclesiastical survey made in 1836, the population
then
consisted of 2,596 churchmen, 320 dissenters, and 33
nondescripts, —in all, 2,949 persons. Parish-schoolmaster's salary
£28, with £30 fees, and £5 other
emoluments. There are four non-parochial schools, one of them
supported by the Iron-works company.
Till 1631 the parish was included in MAUCHLINE: which see. The church
erected in it, at its being made independent, was appropriately called
'the Kirk of the Muir,' —abbreviatedly Muirkirk, —and more formally
the Muirkirk of Kyle.
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