Ayrshire. Ayrshire (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ʃirˠəxk iɲiˈɾʲaːɾʲ]) is a historic county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. Like the other counties of Scotland, it currently has no administrative function, instead being sub-divided into the council areas of North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire. It has a population of approximately 366,800. History[edit] Ayrshire, under the name the County of Ayr, is a registration county. Ayrshire is one of the most agriculturally fertile regions of Scotland. Ayrshire shares with Dumfries and Galloway some rugged hill country known as the Galloway Hills.
The area became part of the kingdom of Scotland during the 11th century. A notable historic building in Ayrshire is Turnberry Castle, which dates from the 13th century or earlier, and which may have been the birthplace of Robert the Bruce. Carrick in the south. Old Roads of Scotland. Introduction In this chapter we will look at roads in each parish.
This will include some reference to any turnpikes that passed through a parish and to roads within a parish. The Old and New Statistical Accounts of Scotland (OSA, NSA) are particularly useful for this. The OSA was written by local Ministers around 1795 giving an overview of each parish in a County and contain numerous references to the roads. The NSA of about 1840, also written by Ministers, shows how the situation had improved enormously. Entry after entry refers to the excellent turnpikes in the parishes and the generally good state of parish roads. Details are often given of turnpike routes and of the mail coaches, stage coaches and carriers serving each town and it clear that a good transport network was in place. Maps of the period such as those of Thomson and Ainslie, published in the 1820's are also very useful.
Roads by Parish Ardrossan At the time of the OSA there were only five miles of turnpike. Auchinleck Ayr. Ayrshire and Arran. Ayrshire History: the history of the county and its people, and the local history of its parishes, towns and villages. Ayrshire Scotland. Things to See and Do in Ayrshire & Arran. Ayrshire Coastal Path. Castles in Ayrshire. Towns and villages - Ayrshire & Arran.
Ayr. Coordinates: Ayr (/ɛər/; Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a former Royal Burgh in Ayrshire, Scotland. Ayr was the county town of the wider county of Ayrshire until 1975. Ayr is now the administrative centre of South Ayrshire council area, which is the unitary local authority. History[edit] Ayr Market Cross in 1810 On April 26, 1315, the first Parliament of Scotland was held in Ayr by Robert The Bruce at St.John's Tower by the sea.
Later, during Cromwellian times, the town was used as a base and fortress for some of his men. Governance[edit] The elected Councillors representing Ayr on South Ayrshire Council are as follows: As a former Royal Burgh, Ayr had a Provost as chief magistrate of the burgh council and the earliest recorded provost is Nicholas de Fynvyk.
A chain and robes are worn by the provost while undertaking their ceremonial duties. The current provost is Labour Councillor Helen Moonie.[7] Geography[edit] Location[edit] Areas of Ayr[edit] Climate[edit]
Kilmarnock. Coordinates: Kilmarnock (Scottish Gaelic: Cille Mheàrnaig) is a large burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland with a population of 46,179,[2] making it the 15th most populated place in Scotland,[3][4] it is also the second largest town in Ayrshire.[5] The River Irvine runs through its eastern section, and the Kilmarnock Water passes through it, giving rise to the name 'Bank Street'.[6] Kilmarnock is often shortened to 'Killie', especially when it is referenced in a footballing situation. Kilmarnock is the main town within East Ayrshire, and the East Ayrshire HQ is located on London Road in Kilmarnock, leading to the villages Crookedholm and Hurlford, which furthermore leads to Loudoun. Kilmarnock is the second largest town in Ayrshire, after only Ayr. The first collection of work by Scottish poet Robert Burns, Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, was published here in 1786, and became known as the Kilmarnock volume.
History[edit] Kilmarnock Cross in 1849. Government[edit] Economy[edit]
Irvine, North Ayrshire. Coordinates: Irvine (pronounced /ˈɜrvɨn/ IR-vin; Scots: Irvin,[2] Scottish Gaelic: Irbhinn)[3] is a new town on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland. According to 2007 population estimates, the town is home to 39,527 inhabitants, making it the biggest settlement in North Ayrshire.[1] Irvine was the site of Scotland's 12th century Military Capital and former headquarters of the Lord High Constable of Scotland, Hugh de Morville.[4] It also served as the Capital of Cunninghame and was, at the time of David I, Robert II and Robert III one of the earliest capitals of Scotland.[5] The town was once a haunt of Robert Burns, after whom two streets in the town are named: Burns Street and Burns Crescent.
Irvine is the birthplace of the present Deputy First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon and the former First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell. History[edit] Prehistory[edit] Middle Ages[edit] In December 2010, the writer A. Trindlemoss Loch[edit] Etymology[edit]
Girvan. Coordinates: Girvan (Scottish Gaelic:Inbhir Gharbhain) is a burgh in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland, with a population of about 8000. Originally a fishing port, it is now also a seaside resort with beaches and cliffs. In 1668, Girvan became a municipal burgh incorporated by charter. It lies 21 miles south of Ayr, and 29 miles north of Stranraer, a principal ferry port from Scotland to Northern Ireland.
Local facilities and festivals[edit] The RNLI Lifeboat and fishing fleet Girvan has a Roman Catholic church, "Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary" built around 1863. Girvan has two Church of Scotland congregations: Girvan North Parish Church in Montgomerie Street (with a spire over 100 feet tall) and Girvan South Parish Church. The HM Coastguard station. The Girvan Folk Music Festival takes place on the first weekend of May each year. The Lowland Gathering takes place on the first Sunday of June each year in the Victory Park in the centre of the town.
Nearby places of interest[edit]
Largs. Coordinates: Largs (Scottish Gaelic: An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, about 33 miles (53 km) from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (An Leargaidh) in Scottish Gaelic. History[edit] Largs evolved from the estates of North Cunninghame over which the Montgomeries of Skelmorlie became temporal lords in the seventeenth century. Sir Robert Montgomerie built Skelmorlie Aisle in the ancient kirk of Largs in 1636 as a family mausoleum. Today the monument is all that remains of the old kirk. From its beginnings as a small village around its kirk, Largs evolved into a busy and popular seaside resort in the nineteenth century. It also became a fashionable place to live, and several impressive mansions were built, the most significant of which included 'Netherhall', the residence of William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, the physicist and engineer.
Largs has historical connections much further back, however. Culture[edit] Places of interest[edit] Twin towns[edit]
Culzean Castle. Culzean Castle (/kʌˈleɪn/ kul-LAYN, see yogh; Scots: Cullain[1]) is a castle near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland. It is the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa, the chief of Clan Kennedy, but is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The clifftop castle lies within the Culzean Castle Country Park and is opened to the public. Since 1987, an illustration of the castle has featured on the reverse side of five pound notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.[2][3] History[edit] Culzean Castle was constructed as an L-plan castle by order of the 10th Earl of Cassilis.
The castle re-opened in April 2011 after a refurbishment funded by a gift in the will of American millionaire William Lindsay to the National trust for Scotland. Features[edit] Entrance to the clock tower courtyard The armoury contains a propellor from a plane flown by Leefe Robinson when he shot down a German Airship north of London in 1916. Ghosts[edit] Film and television appearances[edit] Uses[edit] Culzean Castle.
Category: People from Ayrshire. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This category contains people from Ayrshire, Scotland. Subcategories This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total. Pages in category "People from Ayrshire" The following 79 pages are in this category, out of 79 total.
This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more). Robert the Bruce. Robert I 'The Bruce' Robert Burns. Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Robbie Burns,[1] Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as The Bard)[2][3] was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland.
He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest. Ayrshire Burns Cottage in Alloway, Scotland Inside the Burns Cottage Museum in Alloway Alloway He was born in a house built by his father (now the Burns Cottage Museum), where he lived until Easter 1766, when he was seven years old. By the age of 15, Burns was the principal labourer at Mount Oliphant. Tarbolton Mauchline Love affairs Kilmarnock Edition Edinburgh. Rabbie Burns. David Livingstone. David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley on 10 November 1871 gave rise to the popular quotation "Dr. Livingstone, I presume? " Perhaps one of the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain, Livingstone had a mythic status, which operated on a number of interconnected levels: Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags to riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire.
His fame as an explorer helped drive forward the obsession with discovering the sources of the River Nile that formed the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of the African continent. [citation needed] Early life Livingstone's birthplace in Blantyre. Preaching from a wagon. David Livingstone & Victoria Falls. John Boyd Dunlop. John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish inventor. He was one of the founders of the rubber company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company. He was born on a farm in Dreghorn, North Ayrshire, and studied to be a veterinary surgeon at the Dick Vet, University of Edinburgh, a profession he pursued for nearly ten years at home, moving to Downpatrick, Ireland, in 1867. He established Downe Veterinary Clinic in Downpatrick with his brother James Dunlop before moving to a practice in 38-42 May Street, Belfast. He was a good friend of Queen Victoria.
In 1887, he developed the first practical pneumatic or inflatable tyre for his son's tricycle, fitting it to a wooden disc 96cm across in the yard of his home in Belfast. [1] The tyre was an inflated tube of sheet rubber. Dunlop's image appears today on the £10 note issued by the Northern Bank which is in circulation in Northern Ireland.[5] References[edit] External links[edit] John Boyd Dunlop & Pneumatic tyre. Alexander Fleming. Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, botanist and Nobel Prize recipient Sir Alexander Fleming FRS FRSE FRCS[1] (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of what was later named benzylpenicillin (or penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium rubens is described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease.
"[3][4] For this discovery, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.[5][6][7] He also discovered the enzyme lysozyme from his nasal discharge in 1922, and along with it a bacterium he named Micrococcus Lysodeikticus, later renamed Micrococcus luteus. Early life and education Scientific contributions Antiseptics Discovery of lysozyme At St Mary's Hospital, Fleming continued his investigations into bacteria culture and antibacterial substances. Experiment. Sir Alexander Fleming & Penicillin.
John Loudon McAdam. John Loudon McAdam (21 September 1756 – 26 November 1836) was a Scottish engineer and road-builder. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than soil-based tracks. Early life[edit] Besides taking part in local Ayrshire affairs, McAdam operated the Kaims Colliery. The colliery supplied coal to the British Tar Company, of Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald and partners in the coal tar trade; McAdam ran its kilns.
Road Builder[edit] Memorial stone to John Loudon McAdam. McAdam became a trustee of the Ayrshire Turnpike in 1783 and became increasingly involved with day-to-day road construction over the next 10 years. The macadam method spread very quickly across the world. Death and descendants[edit] McAdam died in Moffat, Dumfriesshire, while returning to his home in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, from his annual summer visit to Scotland. Notes[edit] References[edit] Devereux, Roy (1936). John Loudon MacAdam & Tarmacadam. William Murdoch. William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor. Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.
Murdoch was the inventor of the oscillating cylinder steam engine, and gas lighting is attributed to him in the early 1790s, also the term "gasometer". However, Archibald Cochrane, ninth Earl of Dundonald, had already in 1789 used gas for lighting his family estate.[1] Murdoch also made innovations to the steam engine, including the sun and planet gear and D slide valve. He invented the steam gun and the pneumatic tube message system, and worked on one of the first British paddle steamers to cross the English Channel.
Murdoch built a prototype steam locomotive in 1784 and made a number of discoveries in chemistry. Early life[edit] Birmingham[edit] I think Wm. Cornwall[edit] William Murdoch.
Jim Sillars. Electric Brae. Electric Brae.