Girvan, Water of, a stream of Carrick, Ayrshire, rising in the E of Barr parish, at an altitude of 2050 feet above sea-level, 5¼. miles WSW of the head of Loch Doon. Thence it winds 17¾ miles north-north-westward to the neighbourhood of Kirkmichael village, and thence again 18 miles south-westward, till it falls into the Firth of Clyde at Girvan town, only 14 miles WNW of its source as the crow flies. It traverses or skirts the parishes of Straiton, Kirkmichael, Maybole, Kirkoswald, Dailly, and Girvan; and in the first of these it flows through five lakes, the largest of which are Lochs Lure and Bradan. The scenery hereabouts is bleak and cheerless, but lower down the Girvan's course lies through the fine demesnes of Blairquhan, Dalquharran, Bargany, and Killochan-boyish haunts these of the great landscape painter, Thomson of Duddingston. It is closely followed by the Maybole and Girvan railway, from a point 1½ mile S W of Crosshill village; and it contains good store of trout, with occasional salmon.—Ord. Sur., shs. 8, 14, 8, 7, 1863.
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