Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Dunlop

Dunlop, a village in the N of Cunninghame district, Ayrshire, and a parish partly also in Renfrewshire. The village, standing on the right bank of Glazert Burn, has a post and telegraph office, a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, and a station on the Glasgow, Barrhead, and Kilmarnock Joint railway, 23/8 miles NNW of Stewarton, 7¾ NNW of Kilmarnock, and 16 SW of Glasgow; fairs are held at it on the second Friday of May, o. s., and 12 Nov. Pop. (1861) 330, (1871) 380, (1881) 357. The parish, containing also Lugton Junction, 21/4 miles N of Dunlop and 5 ¼ E by S of Beith, is bounded N and NE by Neilston, SE and S by Stewarton, and NW by Beith. Its utmost length, from NE to SW, is 57/8 miles; its breadth, from NW to SE, varies between 3½ furlongs and 2½ miles; and its area is 71811/4 acres, of which 1101 belong to Renfrewshire, and 2 are water. Three streams all run south-westward, on their ultimate way to the Irvine -Lugton Water along the boundary with Beith, Corsehill Burn along that with Stewarton, and Glazert Burn right through-the interior; Halket Loch, covering 9 or 10 acres, was drained about 1830. Sinking to 280 feet above sea-level at the south-western corner of the parish, the surface rises thence to 444 feet near Ravenslie, 447 near Dunlop station, 583 near Titwood, 828 near Craignaught, 687 near East Halket, and 749 at Drumgrain-steep rocky knolls or hills these last that command a brilliant panoramic prospect. The rocks are partly eruptive, partly carboniferous; claystoneporphyry, amygdaloid, greenstone, and basalt have been extensively quarried; limestone is plentiful, and has long been worked; and coal exists, but of very inferior quality. - Columnar basalt, its pillars generally pentagonal and somewhat curved, occurs at Lochridge Hills, and has been laid bare by quarrying operations. The soil in a few spots is moss, in some is a fine loam, and mostly is of a clayey retentive nature, very productive, especially in grass. Barbara Gilmour, a woman whose wits had been sharpened by exile in Ireland during Scotland's troubles between the Restoration and the Revolution, settled down in Dunlop as a farmer's wife, and, having specially turned her attention to the produce of the dairy, attempted successfully to manufacture from unskimmed milk a species of cheese till then unknown in Scotland, and differing vastly from the horny insipidity of her foregoers. Her process soon was copied by her neighbours; and 'Dunlop cheese' came in a short time into such demand, that whether made by Barbara or her neighbours, or by the housewives of adjoining parishes, it found a ready market far and near. Even Cobbett himself pronounced it 'equal in quality to any cheese from Cheshire, Gloucestershire, or Wiltshire.' The Cunninghame cattle of the present day, from whose milk this famous cheese is mostly made, are descendants from several foreign animals-Alderueys, according to tradition-purchased about the middle of last century by Mr John Dunlop of Dunlop House. Aiket Castle is the principal antiquity; a pre-Reformation chapel, ½ mile from the village, having left no vestiges. From at least 1260 down to 1858 the lands of Dunlop were held by a family of the same name, the last but one of whom John Dunlop (1806-39), M. P. for the county, was created a baronet in 1838. He it was that built Dunlop House in 1833, a fine Tudor mansion, 1 ¼ mile E of Dunlop station. At present 3 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 21 of between £100 and £500, 13 of from £50 to £100, and 13 of from £20 to £50. Dunlop is in the presbytery of Irvine and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £367. The parish church, built in 1835, is a handsome edifice, containing 750 sittings. There is also a Free church; and a public school, with accommodation for 221 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 144, and a grant of £107, 15s. Valuation (1860) £9750; (1882) £13,104, 19s., plus £2550 for railway. Pop. (1801) 808, (1831) 1040, (1861) 1835' (1871) 1160, (1881) 1363.—Ord. Sur., sh. 22,


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Ayrshire ScoCnty       Renfrewshire ScoCnty
Place: Dunlop

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