Garnock, a small river of Cunninghame district, Ayrshire, rising among the Mistylaw Hills, at an altitude of 1600 feet above sea-level, close to the Renfrewshire border, and winding 211/8 miles southward till it falls into the Irvine, ½ mile above that river's influx to the sea, and unites with it to form Irvine harbour. It traverses or bounds the parishes of Kilbirnie, Dalry, Kilwinning, Stevenston, and Irvine; makes, before reaching Kilbirnie village, a wild and lonely cataract, the Spout of Garnock; lower down proceeds slowly through a flat fertile country, over a gravelly bed, with an average breadth of 60 feet; and receives on its right bank Rye and Caaf Waters, on its left bank Lugton and Dusk Waters. Always subject to freshets, it sometimes overflows its banks in its lower reaches with devastating effects; and, on an autumn day of 1790, it rose 4 feet higher than it had ever been known to do before, destroyed a great quantity of standing corn, and carried away many sheaves to the sea. The trout and salmon fishing is very fair, the waters being everywhere preserved. A viscountcy of Garnock was created in 1703 in favour of John Crawford of Kilbirnie, whose grandson, the fourth Viscount, succeeded in 1749 to the earldom of Crawford. It became dormant in 1808.—Ord. Sur., shs. 30, 22, 1866-65.
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