Kilmarnock
East Ayrshire

A town in the Cunninghame district of East Ayrshire, Kilmarnock lies on the Kilmarnock Water and River Irvine, 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Ayr. Said to have been established in the 7th century by the Irish missionary Mernoc or St Ernan, Kilmarnock developed in mediaeval times around the Laigh Kirk. Nearby Dean Castle, built c.1300 by the Earls of Kilmarnock, later fell into the hands of the Boyd family to whom Kilmarnock was chartered as a burgh in 1591. The town expanded in association with the manufacture of knives, clothes and shoes and by the mid-18th century was regarded as the leading centre of Scottish woollens in Scotland. Coal mining, iron-founding, engineering, malting and the manufacture of carpets and railway locomotives later became important. In 1820 a licensed grocery was established by John Walker whose company later adopted the whisky brand name Johnnie Walker in 1907. Engineering, packaging, spinning, blending and bottling, and the manufacture of shoes are still important industries. Places of interest include the Kay Park with its monument to Robert Burns (1879), the Laigh Park, the Dick Institute and Dean Castle. The first edition of the poetic works of Robert Burns was published in 1786 in Kilmarnock which was the birthplace of a number of poets and authors including John Goldie (1717 - 1809), Gavin Turnbull (1758 - 1801), James Thomson (1775 - 1832), George Campbell (1761 - 1818), Alexander Smith (1829-67) and John Kennedy (1789 - 1833). The artist James Tannock (1784 - 1863) and William Tannock were also born here as was the documentary film maker John Grierson (1898 - 1972).

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