Symington

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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Symington, a village and a parish in the NW of Kyle district, Ayrshire. The village stands 3½ miles NNE of Monkton station, and 6 SSW of Kilmarnock, under which it has a post office.

The parish is bounded NE by Riccarton, E by Craigie, S and SW by Monkton, and W and NW by Dundonald. Its utmost length, from NNE to SSW, is 43/8 miles; its breadth varies between 1 and 2¼ miles; and its area is 3736½ acres, of which 11½ are water. In the extreme S the surface declines to close on 100 feet above sea-level; and thence it rises gently to a maximum altitude of 333 feet at a point 21/3 furlongs NNE of the church, from which it sinks again to 201 feet near the Riccarton border. It thus exhibits a pleasing diversity of swells and slopes, and contains many vantage-grounds commanding extensive views of great part of Ayrshire, the Firth of Clyde, and the Isle of Arran. Trap rock has been quarried for road metal, and sandstone for building; whilst limestone and coal exist, but not under profitable conditions. The soil, in general, is of a clayey character., on a hard subsoil. Nearly all the land, except about 300 acres under wood, is regularly or occasionally in tillage. The principal residences are Coodham, Dankeith, Rosemount, and Townend; and 5 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 5 of between £100 and £500. Symington is in the presbytery of Ayr and the synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £350. The parish church is an old building with Norman features, and, as entirely remodelled in 1880, contains 359 sittings. There is also a Free church; and the public school, with accommodation for 132 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 85, and a grant of £69, 16s. Valuation (1860) £6560, (1885) £7104, 5s. 3d. Pop. (1801) 668, (1841) 918, (1861) 855, (1871) 792, (1881) 697.—Ord. Sur., shs. 22, 14, 1865-63.

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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