Darvel or Derval, a village chiefly in Loudon parish, and partly in Galston parish, Ayrshire, on the river Irvine, 1¾ mile E of Newmilns station, this being 7½ miles E by S of Kilmarnock. Regularly built and fairly prosperous, it mainly depends on handloom weaving and the manufacture of muslins; and has a post office under Kilmarnock, a branch of the Union Bank, gas-works, a Free church, a public school, a working men's institute, and a subscription library. The working men's institute was erected in 1872 at the instance of Miss Brown of Lanfine, and contains an amusement room, a reading-room, and a committee room, capable of transmutation into a hall accommodating 500 persons. The lands of Darvel belonged anciently to the Knights Templars, and were independent of tenure, not even holding of the Crown. Pop. (1841) 1362, (1861) 1544, (1871) 1729, (1881) 1718. -)rd. Sur., sh. 22,1865.
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