Craigie, a village and a parish in Kyle district, Ayrshire. The village stands 4 miles S of Kilmarnock, under which it has a post office. The parish, including part of the ancient parish of Barnweill, was itself united to Riccarton till 1647. It is bounded N by Riccarton, NE by Galston, E by Mauchline, SE by Tarbolton, SW by Monkton, and NW by Symington. Rudely resembling a triangle, with south-westward apex, it has an utmost length from NE to SW of 57/8miles, an utmost breadth of 4½ miles, and an area of 6579¼ acres, of which 3 are water. Cessnock Water winds 1 mile along the Galston border; but the drainage is mostly carried southward or south-westward by the Water of fail and the Pow Burn. The surface is undulating, attaining 507 feet above sea-level near Harelaw in the NW, and 458 near Pisgah in the S, heights that command a brilliant panoramic view, away to Ben Lomond, Jura, and the Irish coast. Coal, both bituminous and anthracitic, has here been mined in several places and at different times, though never with much success; whilst the working of limestone of the finest quality has lately been abandoned, chiefly on account of the distance from railway. Great attention is paid to dairy-farming, more than half of the entire area being in pasture, whilst about 170 acres are under wood. William Roxburgh (1759-1815), physician and botanist, was born at Underwood in this parish. Its chief antiquities are artificial mounds, which either were seats of justice or military encampments, and the ruins of Craigie Castle, l¼ mile WSW of the church. A very ancient structure, this was the seat, first of the Lindsays, and then of the Wallaces of Craigie. (See Lochryan house, Wigtownshire.) Mansions are Cairnhill, Barnweill, and Underwood. Craigie is in the presbytery of Ayr and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £300. The church, erected in 1776, stands at the village, as also does a public school, which, with accommodation for 126 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 40, and a grant of £30, 14s. Valuation (1882) £10,724, 5s. 2d. Pop. (1801) 786, (1831) 824, (1861) 730, (1871) 618, (1881) 590.—Ord. Sur., sh. 22, 1865.
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