Kilmun

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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Kilmun, a village in Dunoon and Kilmun parish, Cowal, Argyllshire, on the NE shore of salt-water Holy Loch, 1¼ mile WNW of Strone, 4¼ miles by water but 8 by road N of Dunoon, and 7½ by water WNW of Greenock. Here towards the close of the 6th century a Columban church was founded by St Fintan Munnu of Teach Munnu in Ireland, which church was ' in lay hands in the 13th century, since, between 1230 and 1246, Duncan, son of Fercher, and his nephew Lauman, son of Malcolm, grant to the monks of Paisley certain lands at Kilmun held by them and their ancestors, with the whole right of patronage in the church ' (Skene's Celtic Scotland, ii. 411, 1877). Here, too, in 1442 Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow founded a collegiate church for a provost and six prebendaries, and within this church were buried the founder himself in 1453; the headless body of the great Marquis of Argyll in 1661 (his head not till three years after); the fifth Duke's duchess. known as one of the ' beautiful Miss Gunnings,' in 1790; and other members of the Argyll family. A plain, square mausoleum, pavilion-roofed, of 1794 now covers their remains, nothing existing of the collegiate church but a square tower, 40 feet high, with a stair of peculiar construction. In 1829 David Napier, marine engineer, built the ' six tea caddies ' (houses so called from their plain and uniform aspect), and he it was who constructed the present stone quay. Many beautiful villas have since been erected; and this favourite water-place, sheltered to the N by Kilmun Hill (1535 feet), has now a post office, an hotel, an Established church (1841; 450 sittings), a Free church (1844), and a seaside convalescent home, erected in 1873-74 at a cost of £3500, with accommodation for 70 patients. Kilmun was the death-place of the eminent chemist, Thomas Thomson, M.D., F.R.S. (1773-1852). Pop. (1871) 320, (1881) 331.—Ord. Sur., sh. 29, 1873.

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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