GIRVAN town is of such modern date that the origin of its street names
may still be easily traced. The first that seems to have been built was the
one leading past the old Parish Church in the churchyard, and which is
therefore appropriately called Old Street. It would be the Kirk
Port of its day. This street is partly demolished now, the most notable
house in it, the Ship Inn, after 150 years of existence, having been taken
down a few years ago. High Street also shows signs of antiquity in
its narrowness, in the old Star Inn, now a private dwelling, and in the
numerous closes leading off it. But Knockushion Street, or "the
Knowes," is the real Palladium of Girvan's nobility. This name, as the late
Rev. Dr Macleod of Morven informed me, is -derived from two Gaelic words,
knock, a hillock, and Cuish, a court of law—it being the rising ground on
which the Earls of Carrick, 600 years ago, held their feudal assizes.
Vicarton Street plainly takes us back
to the old Roman Catholic days, when the parish was ministered to by a vicar
appointed by the Abbot of Crossraguel. But the oddest name of all, perhaps,
is Plumb Street, which received its name from a deep pool of water
that used to stand at the head of it. Now, according to Jamieson, Plumb is
.the old Scotch for a deep pool in a river or stream; and he adds that boys,
when bathing in deep water, delighted in plumbing the deepest bit, which
they did by "sinking in an upright position, with the right hand stretched
over the head till their toes touched the bottom. The greatness of the feat
was reckoned by the number counted while the right hand was out of sight."
Not fewer than six of our Girvan streets
received their names from the Bargany lairds, who are the superiors of the
town. First comes Hamilton Street, named after the family who bought
the Bargany lands from the old Kennedys. Then comes long Dalrymple Street,
named after the family who succeeded to the Bargany estates, after a famous
law-plea, about the year 1740. Montgomery Street commemorates the
name of a sister of the Earl of Eglinton, who married the victor in the
above law-plea; while Duncan Street recalls the name of the eldest
daughter of Admiral Duncan, of Camperdown, who married Sir Hew Dalrymple
Hamilton, of Bargany. Henrietta Street was named after the late
Duchess de Coigny, while Wilson
Street
perpetuates the name of one of the factors on the estate.
Piedmont Road reminds us of the former name of Glen-doune, before the
late Mr Young bought it; and Dounepark derives its name originally
from the round hill or Dun above it. Ailsa Street and
Bridge Street speak for themselves, although the latter has not much of
a bridge to boast of; while Newton-Kennedy was so named after the
laird of Dalquharran, to whom the land on that side the river belongs.
Coalpits and Coalshore, though now corrupted into Coalpots
and the Cauldshore, tell of a seam of coal that was once wrought
there, though to little purpose; while the Avenue is the pretty name
of our Girvan Belgravia, which the authorities at one time tried to change
into Bank Street, but luckily in vain.
And this reminds me of what a genius for picturesque naming our ancestors
possessed, which we now seem to be devoid of. What a host of quaint yet
expressive names, for instance, rise on my memory, though they are fast
passing into oblivion:—The Flushes, The Knowes, Windy Row, Sandy Row, Tarry
Lane, Stumpy Corner, The Deacon's Close, Wapping Lane, The Trough, Orange
Arch, The Wrack Road, Blue Sky, Lagganwhilly, Knock-o-vallie, Owre-the-water,
The Sheddings o' the Road, Lovers' Loaning, Skipper Row, &c. Instead of
these, we have now a lot of prosaic Harbour Streets and Wilson
Streets, in accordance with modern taste; but I would not give
Knockushion Street, or the Flushes, for a whole barrowful of such
names, which have neither aptness nor originality to recommend them.
