River Irvine

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Irvine, The (Gael. iar-an, ` westward-flowing river '), a river of Ayrshire, rising on the Lanarkshire border, at an altitude of. 810 feet above sea-level, near Drumclog, and 7 miles SW by W of Strathaven. Thence it winds 29½ miles westward, dividing Cunninghame from Kyle, till it falls into the Firth of Clyde at Irvine town. Its principal affluents are Glen Water, Polbaith Burn, Kilmarnock Water, Carmel Water, Annick Water, and the Garnock; and it bounds the parishes of Galston, Loudoun, Kilmarnock, Riccarton, Kilmaurs, Dreghorn, Dundonald, and Irvine, under which full details are given as to the town, villages, mansions, and other features of its course. If the beauty of the stream, gliding slowly over its pebbly bed, the richness and verdure of its haughs, the openness of its course, the array of mansions looking down upon its meanderings, the displays of industry and wealth which salute it on its progress, are taken into view, the Irvine will be pronounced one of the most pleasing rivers of Scotland, more grateful to the eye of combined patriotism and taste, than not a few of the highly picturesque streams which have drawn music from a hundred harps, and poesy from a cluster of the most gifted bards. The Irvine used to yield tolerable sport, and down to Kilmarnock the trout-fishing still is fair, but lower down its waters are poisoned by the refuse of public works and by town sewage. A few salmon ascend as far as Shewalton.—Ord. Sur., shs. 23, 22, 1865.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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