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Symington
SYMINGTON, a parish in the north-west of
Kyle,
Ayrshire; bounded on the north by Dundonald; on the
north-east by Riccarton; on the east by Craigie; on the
south by Monkton; and on the west by Monkton and
Dundonald. Its length from east to west is about 4
miles; its breadth is about 1¼ mile; and its
superficial extent is about 4,000 acres. The surface is
a pleasing diversity of gentle rising grounds and
sloping fields, frilled over with enclosures, broadly
gemmed with plantation, and finely decorated with
gentlemen's demesnes. The higher grounds, including the
site of the village, command a prospect of the greater
part of Ayrshire and the frith of Clyde. The soil is in
general clay, or a rich black loam, on a sandstone
bottom. Excepting about 300 acres of plantation, nearly
the whole area is in tillage. Sandstone and whinstone
are quarried, —the former as building material, and the
latter as road-metal. Limestone occurs, but cannot be
profitably worked. Coal was at one time mined, but has
been abandoned. —The village of Symington is an
irregular but delightfully situated aggregation of
houses on a rocky ground or gentle eminence in the
centre of the parish, 7 miles south-east of Irvine, and
the same distance north-north-east of Ayr. Its
population is about 280. The parish is traversed
through the village by the Glasgow and Portpatrick
mailroad. Population, in 1801, 668; in 1831, 884.
Houses 148. Assessed property, in
1815, £6,178. -Symington is in the presbytery of
Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Patron, Lady M.
Montgomery. Stipend £246 11s. 9d.; glebe £12.
Unappropriated teinds £553 5s. Schoolmaster's salary
£34 5s. 10½d., with £50 fees, and £2 5s. other
emoluments. There is a non-parochial school. The
parish-church is old and of unknown date, but has been
repeatedly repaired. —Both this parish and the
Lanarkshire Symington derived their name, originally
written Symonstoun, from Symon Loccard or Lockhart, who
held the lands of both under Walter the 1st Stewart,
and was the progenitor of the Lockharts of Lee and
other families of the same name. The church of the
Kyle-Symington was granted to the convent which was
founded at Feil or Faile in Kyle during the year 1252,
and continued to be a vicarage till the Reformation.
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