‘A burgh of barony’

SERIES

THE parish of Tarbolton is in central Ayrshire, in the area known as Kyle, sandwiched between Cunninghame to the north and Carrick to the south.

The village of Tarbolton is roughly half-way between Kilmarnock and Ayr. There are the remains of a ‘motte and bailey’ earthwork castle in the centre of the village, evidence that it was the centre of a ‘barony’ founded during the 12th century as part of the introduction of the feudal system in lowland Scotland.

The parish would have been defined at the same time. In the later mediaeval period the parish was a prebend of Glasgow Cathedral (as recorded in 1429), with its revenues going to the cathedral, and the parish priest serving in cathedral worship.

In 1653 the parish was enlarged, when the parish of Barnweil, to the north, was divided between it and Craigie parish. Before the Reformation Barnweil belonged to the friary of Fail, of the order of the friars of the Holy Trinity (the Red Friars).

Soon after the parish had been enlarged, in 1671 John Cunninghame of Enterkine was granted the privilege of creating Tarbolton as a ‘burgh of barony, with the right to hold a weekly market. The parish was described in the 1890s thus: ‘The low grounds, especially along the river Ayr, comprise much close scenery, and the high grounds command magniicent prospects, over land and sea, to bold and distant backgrounds’.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, as in most of Scotland, ‘improved farming’ replaced the earlier pattern of small ‘subsistence’ farms. Fields were enclosed, the application of lime, and rotation of crops greatly increased the produce from the land. Tarbolton parish also had the advantage of coal seams, which had been mined since 1497.

Roads were also constructed throughout Ayrshire, creating larger markets for local produce. It was in this context that Robert Burns took over the lease of the improved farm of Lochlea. Burns joined the Tarbolton Lodge of Freemasons, and in 1780, with like-minded men, founded the Bachelors’ Club. The thatched building in which the club met is still in the centre of the village, the property of the National Trust for Scotland. It was while Burns was living at Lochlea that he met ‘Highland Mary’ (Mary Cameron), who was ‘byrewoman’, on the Coilsield estate.

Tarbolton became an important local centre. It is likely that the mediaeval parish church was on the site of the present church building, and indeed the elevated site may well have been a centre of worship before Christianity reached this part of Ayrshire.

The present church, subject of this article, was built between 1819 and 1821 to designs by Robert Johnstone of Kilmarnock, at a cost of £2500. It was described in the 1890s as a ‘good edifice’. The steeple, ninety feet high, is a late example of the classical steeples so characteristic of Ayrshire churches in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The 18th-century secessions from the Church of Scotland were popular in Ayrshire, and in 1777 a ‘Burgher’ church was built in Tarbolton.

In 1820 this became a United Secession church, in 1847 a United Presbyterian church, in 1900 a United Free church, and in 1929 (on the union of the United Free Church with the Church of Scotland) it became Tarbolton Erskine Church of Scotland. Its congregation united with that of the parish church (Tarbolton Old since 1929), worshipping in the latter. The Burgher church became a hall.

Tarbolton is now linked with Annbank Parish Church, a handsome early 20thcentury building constructed to serve a mining community.

These two buildings are both well worth visiting, and the country they are set in is a most attractive part of a lovely lowland county.’

This article appears in the September 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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