Parish of Dailly

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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1791-99: Dailly
1834-45: Dailly

Dailly, a village and a parish in Carrick district, Ayrshire. The village of New Dailly stands on the left bank of Girvan Water, 7 furlongs SSE of Dailly station, on the Ayr and Girvan railway, this being 5½ miles ENE of Girvan, and 73/8 SSW of Maybole, under which it has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments. Greatly improved and enlarged since 1825, it is substantially built and regularly aligned; at it are a principal inn, the parish and Free churches, a public school, and a working men's club. Pop. (1841) 591, (1861) 650, (1871) 554, (1881) 696. The parish, called anciently Dalmaolkeran ('dale of St Keiran'), had its church till 1691 at Old Dailly, 3½ miles to the WSW; in 1653 it was shorn of a large tract to form Barr parish, but acquired a small annexation from Kirkoswald. It includes Ailsa Craig; yet itself at no point touches the sea, being bounded NW and N by Kirkoswald, NE by Kirkmichael, E by Kirkmichael and Straiton, S by Barr, SW and W by Girvan. Its utmost length, from E to W, is 7¾ miles; its breadth, from N to S, varies between 1½ and 6 miles; and its area is 18,0781/3 acres, of which 82½ are water. Girvan Water, followed pretty closely by the railway, winds 91/8 miles west-south-westward through the north-western interior or along the northern and western borders; and several burns run to it from the interior. In the SW, where it passes off into Girvan, the surface sinks to close upon 50 feet above sea-level, thence rising north-eastward to 500 feet at High Craighead, 329 near Kilgrammie, 700 at Quarrel Hill, and 850 at Kirk Hill; south-eastward and eastward to 908 at Green Hill, 1059 at Hadyard Hill, 981 at Peat Rig, 1049 at Barony Hill, 1007 at Cairn Hill, and 1385 at Garleffin Fell. The rocks belong partly to the Calciferous Sandstone series, partly to the Carboniferous Limestone; and coal is worked at Bargany and Dalquharran, limestone at Craighead, while sandstone also is plentiful. The tract along Girvan Water is a pleasant vale, fertile, richly wooded, and well cultivated; the soil is here partly alluvial, and elsewhere ranges from argillaceous or light and dry, incumbent on gravel, to thin, wet, and spongy on the hills, which, naturally heathy or mossy, have been in places reclaimed, and almost everywhere afford good pasturage- Baronial fortalices stood at Old Kilkerran, Dalquharran, Brunston, and Penkill; a chapel of St Macarins * stood at Machrykill, another of Our Lady in Ladyglen, and a third at Altichapel; whilst on the western shoulder of Hadyard Hill, which commands a magnificent view, is a doubly-entrenched camp, possibly formed in the days of Robert Bruce, and measuring 300 feet by 195. Natives of Dailly were the poet, Hew Ainslie (1792-1878); Thos. Thomson (1768-1852), lawyer and antiquary; and his painter brother, the Rev. Jn. Thomson of Duddingston (1778-1840): and Prof. Alex. Hill, D.D. (1785-1867), was minister from 1816 to 1840. Mansions, all separately noticed, are Bargany, Dalquharran Castle, Kilkerran, Killochan Castle, and Penkill Castle; and 5 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 2 of between £100 and £500, and 6 of from £20 to £50. Dailly is in the presbytery of Ayr and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £397. In 1881 it was all but resolved to rebuild the parish church (1766; 600 sittings), but for the present things are at a standstill. Four schools-Dailly public, Kilgrammie public, Old Dailly public, and Wallacetown Works-with respective accommodation for 227, 109,75, and 90 children, had (1880) an average attendance of 168,55,39, and 89, and grants of £135,14s., £27,13s., £40,14s., and £61,4s. Valuation (1882) £16,288,18s. 10d., plus £2618 for railway. Pop. (1801) 1756, (1831) 2074, (1861) 2050, (1871) 1932, (1881) 2204.—Ord. Sur., shs. 14,8,1863.

* In Procs. Ayr and Wigtown Archæol. Soc. (1882) is a notice of the sole relic of this chapel-a stone supposed to have been a baptismal font of high antiquity.

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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