: Comments on New%20Cumnock

30 December 2004:
In 1650 the original parish of Cumnock was divided into the two new parishes of Old Cumnock and New Cumnock. The parish of Old Cumnock was served by the existing parish church whilst a new parish church was built for the parish of New Cumnock.

The new church, now the Auld Kirk was built adjacent to the site of Cumnock Castle, the ancient seat of the Barons of Cumnock, held by the Earls of Dunbar from the late 13th century. Cumnock Castle overlooked the confluence of the River Nith and the Afton Water, a meeting of waters that gave rise to the Gaelic place-name comunn ach 'place of the confluence'. The town of New Cumnock grew up around the new church at the heart of the large upland parish of New Cumnock.

- Robert Guthrie