Kilmarnock, a stream of fair size in the Cunninghame district of Ayrshire. It is formed by two streams that rise on the S border of Eaglesham parish in the county of Renfrew. The one to the W is known in Renfrewshire as Greenfield Burn, and in its Ayrshire part as Fenwick Water. That to the W issues from Loch Goin or Blackwoodhill Dam, and is known at first as Loch Burn; after receiving Birk Burn it is known as Dunton Water, and then as Craufurdland Water. Both flow in a general south-westerly direction, the former for 10 miles and the latter for 8¼ miles, chiefly through Fenwick and Kilmarnock parishes till they unite at Dean Castle, 1 mile NE of the town of Kilmarnock. The united stream known as Kilmarnock Water has then a course of 2 miles till it falls into Irvine Water 3 furlongs W of Riccarton. In the 17th century Pont speaks of it as the Mernock, and Franck in his Northern Memoirs as the Marr, while an old rhyme calls it the Carth-
'The Water of Carth rins by the Dean
That ance was Lord Boyd's lodgin.'
A curious sudden freshet that took place on the stream in 1852, is noticed in the article on the burgh of Kilmarnock.—Ord. Sur., sh. 22, 1865.
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