Girvan, a town and a parish in Carrick district, Ayrshire. The town stands on the coast at the mouth of the Water of Girvan, 10 miles by sea E by S of Ailsa Craig, whilst by two sections of the Glasgow and South-Western railway-the Maybole and Girvan (1860) and the Girvan and Portpatrick Junction (1876)-it is 21½ miles SSW of Ayr, 62 SSW of Glasgow, and 45 NNE of Portpatrick. Its name originally was Invergarvan, in allusion to Girvan Water, which was formerly called the Garvan; and it seems to have been founded in the 11th century, but never till a recent period rose above the condition of a village. Extending southward from the river's mouth along the shore, and overlooked by hills that culminate a mile inland at 827 feet above sea-level, it enjoys a delightful site, picturesque surroundings, and a splendid view of the Firth of Clyde, but possesses few attractions of its own. Robert Heron, in his Journey through the Western Counties of Scotland in 1792, though liberal enough in praises generally, of Girvan wrote:-' The houses are huts more miserable than those of Ballantrae. They are so low as to seem, at the S end of the village, rather caves dug in the earth than houses built upon it; though, on the NW side and close upon the banks of the river, there are some more decent and commodious houses.' The town has been greatly extended and vastly improved since Heron's day, and it now contains some very fair public buildings and numerous comfortable private houses; yet it still is far inferior in structure and aspect to many Scotch towns of its size, and looks more like an overgrown village than even a third-rate considerable town. Many or most of its houses are still one-story cottages, containing merely a dwelling-room and weaver's workshop; and even a considerable proportion of the recently-built ones are small untidy tenements, occupied by cotton weavers, not a few of them immigrant Irish. The parish church (1770; 750 sittings) in the autumn of 1882 was about to be rebuilt at a cost of £4000. The South church, built as a chapel of ease in 1839, and containing 900 sittings, was raised in 1875 to quoad sacra status. Other places of worship are a Free church (1844), a U.P. church (1870; 450 sittings), St John's Episcopal church, and the Roman Catholic church of the Sacred Hearts (1860; 200 sittings). Girvan, besides, has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph departments, branches of the British Linen Co., Commercial, National, Royal, and Union Banks, offices or agencies of 25 insurance companies, 2 hotels, a town-hall, assembly rooms, a Mechanics' Institute, a reading-room, a lifeboat institution, a gas-light company, a weekly market on Monday, and fairs on the first Monday of April and October. Cottonweaving is still carried on, though not as in 1838, when the number of hand-looms, including a few in the neighbourhood, was no less than 1800, the fabrics woven being almost all coarse cottons for the manufacturers of Glasgow. A harbour, at the mouth of Girvan Water, was formerly capable of admitting only vessels of small burden, but has undergone great improvement of recent years. The latest extension, undertaken in 1881, and estimated to cost £12, 000, includes the carrying out of a pier from the W side, and of a breakwater from the NE side, of the present harbour, which will, when completed, resemble that of Eyemouth. A steamer plies backwards and forwards to Glasgow once a week. A burgh of barony under the superiority of the proprietor of Bargany, Girvan received its first charter in 1696, but did not enjoy burgh privileges till 1785. It is governed by 2 bailies and 12 other councillors, whilst the harbour is managed by 12 commissioners. Sheriff. small debt courts are held three times a year; and a. justice of peace small debt court sits on the first Monday of every month. Municipal constituency (1882) 310. Pop. (1836) 5300, (1851) 7306, (1861) 5927, (1871) 4791, (1881) 4505. Houses (1881) 875 inhabited, 80 vacant, 1 building.
The parish of Girvan is bounded N by Kirkoswald, NE by Dailly, SE by Barr, S by Colmonell, and W by the Firth of Clyde. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 7¼. miles; its breadth, from E to W, varies between 13/8. and 57/8. miles; and its area is 14, 954 acres, of which 322 are foreshore and 52 water. The coast-line, 8¼. miles long, is closely skirted by the road to Ballantrae, and, offering few and inconsiderable curvatures, over all but the southernmost 2¼. miles is low, with a boulder-strewn beach, covered thickly with seaweed. From Ardwell southwards to Pinhain it is bold and rocky, the road itself attaining 100 feet above sea-level at the southern extremity of the parish, and the surface thence rising rapidly inland to 973 feet at Grey Hill and 734 at Pinhain Hill. The Water of Girvan winds 1 mile south-south-westward along the Dailly border, then 3¼. miles west-south-westward through the interior to its mouth at Girvan harbour; and, at the SE corner of the parish, the Stinchar traces 1 mile of the boundary with Barr and Colmonell, and from Girvan is fed by the Water of Assel, running 5 miles south-westward, southward, and south-eastward. The surface generally is hilly, from N to S attaining 275 feet above sea-level near Boghead, 639 near Brae, 970 at Saugh Hill, 923 at Trower Hill, 883 near Laggan, 701 at Byne Hill, and 971 at Kirkland Hill, which culminates right on the Barr border. The tract to the N of the town is flat in places, but on the whole presents an undulating appearance, and is fertile, well cultivated, and finely embellished. The southern district is to a large extent pastoral. Sandstone conglomerate is the predominant rock, and extends for a considerable distance along the beach; whinstone, both grey and blue, is sufficiently plentiful and accessible to furnish material for all the local buildings; and limestone has been worked pretty largely in the E. Coal, though abundant in Dailly, does not seem to pass within the limits of Girvan; but excellent copper ore has been found, and is supposed to exist in considerable quantity; whilst gypsum, shell marl, and coarse potter's clay are also found; and the last has long been extensively used for tile-work. The soil of the arable lands has much diversity of character, but is mostly a dry light mould on a sandy or gravelly bottom. Vestiges of five ancient camps occur near the sea, one of them engirt by two concentric ditches. Of several pre-Reformation chapels, the chief were Kirk. dominæ in the SE and Chapel-Donan in the N. St Cuthbert's itself, the ancient parish church, was held by Crossraguel abbey; its graveyard in 1611 was the scene of a singular episode. A murdered retainer of Kennedy of Colzean had here been buried, when his master the laird was moved by a dream to have him disinterred, that all who lived near might come and touch the corpse. All did so but John Mure of Auchendrane and his son, whom none suspected, till young Mary Mure, his daughter, perceiving the crowd, went in among them. When she came near the dead body, the blood started from it, whereon her father was apprehended and put to the torture. Ardmillan is the chief mansion; and 9 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 6 of between £100 and £500, 17 of from £50 to £100, and 64 of from £20 to £50. Girvan is in the presbytery of Ayr and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £424. Four public schools-the Burgh, Assel, Doune, and Girvan-and a Roman Catholic school, with respective accommodation for 685, 45, 100, 207, and 116 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 392, 42, 57, 193, and 77, and grants of £272, 5s. 6d., £49, 7s., £44, 6s., £182, 10s. 6d., and £18, 19s. 4d. Valuation (1860) £18, 675; (1882) £22,506, 14s. 8d., plus £1611 for railways. Pop. (1801) 2260, (1831) 6430, (1861) 7053, (1871) 5685, (1881) 5480, of whom 2831 were in Girvan ecclesiastical parish, and 2649 in that of South Church.—Ord. Sur., shs. 7, 8, 1863.
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