23rd November 2008

Added details of latest AANHS monograph, The Loans Smugglers.

Added lists of contents for Ayrshire Notes Nos. 34-36 and pdf files of these issues for download.

The Ayrshire History Google Group (see links above) has 170 members, many of whom have had responses to their queries. As is the case elsewhere on the Web, there is a problem with the posting of undesirable material. Anything of this nature is removed as soon as I am aware of it. Non-members can visit the group but are not allowed to post. It is worth visiting to see the current topics.

28th June 2007

The Research Postings facility on this site is now inactive, though all existing contribution will continue to be online and searchable.

In its place there is now the Ayrshire History Google Group. Like Research Postings this will probably take some time to attract enough contributions to become useful. There will be links from this site to topics raised in the group so that they will show up in Google searches.

13th May 2007

Ayrshire Notes: added list of contents of Ayrshire Notes 33, Spring 2007. Ayrshire Notes 22 (Spring 2002) to 32 (Autumn 2006) are available to download as pdfs, as are Ayrshire Notes 17 (Autumn 1999) and 14 (Spring 1998). If you have a dial-up connection, please note the files sizes before proceeding.

15th March 2007

Keith Maddison has added a useful postscript to the article on John Gallon, 'Drowned while hunting with his otter-hounds.' The incident happened in the Water of Lugar in 1873.

22nd January 2006

Ayrshire Notes 14 (1998) can now be downloaded as a pdf file.

19th October 2006

New article: James McAdam and the Loss of Waterhead. According to a family memoir, John McAdam of Craigengillan had a dishonourable hand in the loss of the estate of his former ward. It may be, however, that Craigengillan was traduced, and that James McAdam was the author of his own fate.

16th October 2006

Added details of the latest AANHS monograph, Dr John Taylor, Chartist: Ayrshire Revolutionary by W. Hamish Fraser (Ayr, 2006).

Added list of contents of Ayrshire Notes nos. 31 (Spring 2006) and 32 (Autumn 2006). There are links to some articles also published on this site.

8th October 2006

Postings: Edgar Allan Poe; the farm of Skylahill (= Skellyhill?); former monastery on an island in Fergus Loch; Kilkerran Pyroligneous Acid Works; Dumfries House station; the Dalmellington motte; Birnieknowe; Dungavel mining training centre; Captain James Howie, slavetrader; Rev. Henry Ritchie Buchan; Primrose William Kennedy; Rankinston; John Wilson's printing press and the Ayr Advertiser.

28th September 2006

Servants in Ayrshire, the monograph by Jean Aitchison (AANHS Ayr, 2001) is now out of print. It is available here as a pdf download. This is a large file and should only be downloaded using a broadband connection.

Download Servants in Ayrshire (approx. 3.5MB). Also available from the Bibliography/aanhs_monos page.

27th September 2006

Postings: The band in Buttermarket Close, Ayr (John Faulds Davidson snr 23/05/1906 - 04/01/1947); violin or fiddle making in Ayrshire; Burnside Children's Home, Irvine; John (James?) Boyd, Kilmarnock FC 1908-1909; Ayrshire coups and ginger beer bottles; Ochiltree and Auchenleck castles on the Lugar.

26th September 2006

Postings: McDowall's the bakers, Dalry; Meadowpark Huts, Dundonald (near Irvine); Kingswell Inn; Glenburn miners' rows; Ardrossan & Saltcoats Golf Club; Skylahill farm.

24th September 2006

Postings: Kilkerran Pyroligneous Acid Works; Crosby, West Kilbride; Alexander Murdoch, procurator fiscal; Alexander McQuater; violin or fiddle making in Ayrshire.

7th September 2006

Posting: The Millers of Monk Castle.

5th September 2006

Ayrshire Notes 17 (Autumn 1999) is now available as a pdf download.

4th September 2006

Postings: Meadowside Park Huts, Irvine; Corsehill Barracks, Coylton.

3rd September 2006

Postings; Mossblown and Glenburn miners' rows; Clark Shoes Kilmarnock (Saxone); Mark Alexander Boyd, poet, of Penkill; Walter J. Scott, photographer, Ardrossan; Corsehill Barracks, Coylton; Craigend House, Troon.

29th August 2006

Postings: John McCabe GC, killed in explosion at Ardeer on 2nd April 1940; early Victorian grandfather clock by Hugh Miller of Stewarton; Crosbie Towers estate; former church in Hurlford; Sliddery Braes or Asloss Mains, Kilmarnock; St. Andrews Home, Millport; lintmill at Seamill; Bartonholm Colliery Rows and/or Deepdraught Cottages; milestone at Hillhead on Ayr to Cumnock road.

23rd August 2006

Postings: John Parkinson; Robert Smith, provost of Kilwinning c.1925; Brunston castle; Birnieknowe; Monk castle; J & M Craig - Kilmarnock brick washed up in Bermuda!.

19th August 2006

Postings: Corsehill Barracks, Coylton; J & M Craig, Kilmarnock; John Boyd, Kilmarnock FC, 1908-1909; Knoweside Caravan Park; Barr Village Hall; Alexander Murdoch procurator fiscal; stone on Todhill(s) Farm; Prof. Macquorn Rankin; Daniel Gallacher, poet, Kilmarnock; old monastery somewhere between Colyton and Boghall; brass 'eye' token; Mount House, Dundonald Road, Kilmarnock; the history of paediatric care in South Ayrshire;

18th August 2006

Postings: Birnieknowe; Saxone - Clark shoe family from Kilmarnock; Robert Craig clockmaker in Galston c. 1800; John Smith memorial stone (ref. Battle of Chattanooga, American Civil War; Stair Hone Works; Ralston and Smith, shipbuilders (enquiry about Messrs Connel); Kilmarnock WW2 air raid; Standalane; Newmilns Public School (burnt down in 1960); Galt and Wilson, furniture makers in Beith; Water supply in Newmilns and Galston, 1840-1870; Tannock brothers from Kilmarnock, painters for Royal Court; Irvine Poorhouse; McGavin Park, Kilwinning; Benston and Wellhill farms, New Cumnock; St. Andrew's Home, Millport; Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine; John Parkinson; milestones on Irvine to Stewarton road buried during WW2; Chapeltoun and Lambroughton; General Roy's map; Shawwood; Alexander McQuater, inscribed desk 1840; Shaw Tower, Prestwick; Carrick roads, 18th and 19th C.

16th August 2006

New posting: Bookcase with connections to Dumfries House 1763; Kipper house, Saltcoats harbour; George Carruthers, Mauchline police superintendant; painting of Troon harbour by Tony McGowne.

31st July 2006

New postings: Frederick the Great of Prussia at Perceton; Ayr fruit merchants; Ayr provost Hugh Crauford; John Blair's gift of a public park in Dalry; J & M Craig, Kilmarnock.

25th April 2006

Tom Barclay and Eric J. Graham, The Early Transatlantic Trade of Ayr 1640-1730, was reviewed by David Ransome in The Local Historian, vol. 36.1, February 2006, 56. Read the review here.

New article: 'James McAdam: Waterhead to Whitefoord'

8th April 2006

New article: 'Rev Robert Jaffray (1747-1814), Minister of Gallows Knowe Church, Kilmarnock' by Archie McKellar.

McAdam and McClure - a posting about the ancestry of John Loudon McAdam.