Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

—;MUIRHEAD OF LIFFFife, adjacent to the North British railway, 2| milesSSW of Kettle village.Muirhead of Liff, a village in Liff and Benvie parish,Forfarshire, near the Perthshire boundary, 4| milesNW of Dundee.Muirhouse, a village in Dairy parish, Ayrshire, 2Jmiles NE of Dairy village.Muirhouse, a mansion in Cramond parish, Edinburghshire,on the shore of the Firth of Forth, IJ mile NNEof Davidson's Mains and 4J miles WNW of Edinburgh.Only two round towers remain of a previous mansion{drca 1670) ; and the present house is a picturesqueTudor edifice of about 1830, with a square battlementedtower and beautiful well-wooded grounds. Its drawingroomis adorned with several frescoes by ZephaniahBelL Purchased by his ancestor in 1776, the estatebelongs now to Thomas Davidson, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S.,F.G.S. (b. 1817 ; sue. 1865), who holds 412 acres in theshire, valued at £1216 per annum. Ord. Sur., sh. 32,1857. See John Small's Castles and 3Iansions of theLothians (Ediub. 1883).Muirhouse, Forfarshire. See Mureoes.Muirhouses, a village in Carriden parish, Linlithgowshire,2\ miles SE of Borrowstounness.Muirhouseton. See Mueieston.Muirkirk, a town and a parish in the NE of Kyledistrict, Ayrshire. The town, lying near the rightbank of the Ayr, 720 feet above sea-level, has a station,the junction of the Douglasdale branch of the Caledonianwith the Muirkirk branch of the Glasgow and Southwesternrailway, lOJ miles ENE of Auchinleck, 25| E byN of Ayr, 57| SSE of Glasgow (only 30 by road), and 49|With environs bleaker perhaps thanSW of Edinburgh.those of any other town in Scotland, Leadhills and Wanlockheadalone excepted, it is tlie seat of an extensiveiron manufacture, and was brought into existencethrough the discovery and smelting of iron ore (1787).A small predecessor or nucleus existed previously underthe name of Garan ; and the transmutation of this intothe town of Muirkirk is noticed as follows in the OldStatistical Account ;—'The only village, or ratherclacJian, as they are commonly called, that deserves thename, lies at a small distance from the church, by theside of the high road, on a rising ground called Garanhill,which therefore gives name to the range of housesthat occupy it. They have increased greatly in numbersince the commencement of the works ; and new housesand streets have risen around them. Many housesbesides, some of them of a very neat structure, havebeen built at the works themselves ; and others aredaily appearing that will, in a short time, greatly exceedin number and elegance those of the old village, formerly,indeed, the only one that the parish could boast. ' Theplace has undergone great fluctuations of prosperitybut, during the last half century, and especially sincethe formation of the railway, it has been very flourishing,insomuch as to rank among the great seats of the ironmanufacture in Scotland. The works of the EglintonIron Company have 3 blast furnaces, 10 puddling furnaces,and 2 rolling mills, for the manufacture of pigand malleable iron ; and coal-mining and lime-burningare actively carried on. New works for collectingammonia as a by-product at the furnaces were erectedat a large outlay in 1883. Muirkirk has a post officewith money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments,a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, 2 hotels,a gas company, a good library, hiring fairs on theTuesday after 18 Feb. and the 'Thursday after 18 Dec,and a cattle and sheep fair on the second Friday inJune. The parish church, built in 1812, and renovatedin 1883 at a cost of £1700, contains 800 sittings.Other places of worship are a Free church builtsoon after the Disruption, a U.P. church (1823 ; 380sittings), and St 'Thomas' Roman Catholic church(1856 ; 250 sittings), which last was enlarged and improvedin 1882, when a presbytery also was built at thecost of the Marquess of Bute. Pop. (1861) 2281, (1871)2376, (1881) 3470, of whom 1861 were males. Houses(1881) 637 inhabited, 32 vacant, 2 building.82IVIUIBKIREThe parish, containing also Glenbtjck village, formedpart of Mauchline parish till 1631, and, then being constituteda separate parish, received, from the situationof its church, the name of Kirk of the Muir, Muirkirk,or Muirkirk of Kyle. It is bounded S by Auchinleck,W by Sorn, and on all other sides by Lanarkshire, viz.,N by Avondale, NE by Lesmahagow, and E by Douglas.Its utmost length, from E to W, is 10§ miles ; its utmostbreadth, from N to S, is 8 miles ; and its area is 47isquare miles or 30,429J acres, of which 200| are water.Two artificial reservoirs, together covering 121 acres,are noticed under Glenbuck. Issuing from the first ofthese, and traversing the second, the river Ate winds6| miles west-south-westward through the interior,then 2| miles west-north-westward along the southernboundary. Its principal affluents during this courseare Gaepel Water, running 4J miles north-westward,and Greenock Water, running 9| miles south-westward.Along the Ayr, in the extreme W, the surface declinesto 567 feet above the sea ; and chief elevations to the Nof the river are *Burnt Hill (1199 feet), Meanleur HUl(1192), Black Hill (1169), *Goodbush HiU (1556), and*Priesthill Height (1616) ; to the S, Wood Hill (1234),*WardlawHill (1630), the Steel (1356), and *Caientable(1944), where asterisks mark those summits that culminateon the confines of the parish. On all sides, then,except the W, or over a sweeping segment of 25 miles,its boundary is a water-shedding line of heights. Theinterior is a rough and dreary expanse of moorish hills,tame in outline, and clad in dark purple heather, hererising in solitary heights, there forming ridges whichrun towards almost every point of the compass. Caimtable,on the boundary with Lanarkshire, near the SEextremity, is the highest ground, and commands, on aclear day, an extensive and varied prospect. At mostone-sixth of the entire area has ever been regularly oroccasionally in tillage ; and all the remainder, exceptingabout 250 acres of plantation, is disposed in sheep-walks—some of them so excellent that Muirkirk black-facedoheep have carried off the first prize at several of theHighland Society's shows and at the Paris Exhibition of1867. In the 12th century a natural forest extendedover a large part, perhaps nearly the whole, of theparish ; and has left dreary memorials both in suchnames as Netherwood and Harwood, now borne byutterly treeless farms, and in long trunks and branchesdeeply buried in moss. The mountain-ash is almost theonly tree that seems to grow spontaneously. It adornsthe wildest scenes, and unexpectedly meets the eye bythe side of a barren rock and sequestered stream, seenseldom save by the birds of the air or the solitaryshepherd and his flock. Coal lies on both sides of theAyr, at no greater depth than 60 fathoms, in sis seamsaggregately 30J feet thick, and severally 3^, 3, 7, 9, 2J,and 5J. It is mined, on the most approved plans andin ver}' large quantities, both for exportation and forlocal consumpt and manufacture. Ironstone occurs inthe coal-field in five workable seams, so thick that threetons of stone are obtained under every square yard ofsurface. Limestone likewise is plentiful, and is workedwith the ironstone and coal. Lead and manganese havebeen found, but not in such quantity as to repay thecost of mining. The parish is deeply and patheticallyassociated with martyrs of the Covenant. Of variousmonuments the most remarkable is that upon Priesthillfarm to the ' Christian carrier,' John Brown, who, on 1May 1685, was shot by Claverhouse, in presence of hiswife and family. On the top of Cairntable there aretwo large cairns. Five proprietors hold each an annualvalue of £500 and upwards, 9 of between £100 and £500,6 of from £50 to £100, and 26 of from £20 to £50.Muirkirk is in the presbytery of Ayr and the synod ofGlasgow and Ayr ; the living is worth £234. Glenbuckpublic, Muirkirk public, Muirkirk Ironworks, and WellwoodWorks schools, with respective accommodation for288, 317, 365, and 102 children, had (1883) an averageattendance of 192, 230, 345, and 92, and grants of£142, 14s. 6d., £194, 7s., £301, 17s. 6d., and £70, 7s.Valuation (1860) £9311, (1884) £24,056, Is. 9A.,-jolus