Ayrshire, Scotland Genealogy

Ayrshire, an extensive county on the western coast of Scotland, is bounded on the north by Refrewshire, on the east by the counties of Lanark and Dumfries, on the south by the stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the county of Wigton, and on the west by the Firth of Clyde and the Irish Channel. It is about sixty miles in length and nearly thirty in extreme breadth. It comprised an area of about 1600 square miles or 1,024,000 acres. It includes forty-six parishes and is divided into the districts of Carrick, Kyle, and Cunnighame. It contains the royal burghs of Ayr (the county town) and Irvine. There are thirteen towns and numerous large and populous villages.

The surface of the county is varied. The district of Cunnighame in the north is compariatively level. In Kyle, which is the central portion, it is hilly and eneven though containing some large tracts of fertile and well cultivated land. The district of Carrick in the south is wild and mountainous. The coast, particularly that of Carrick, is precipitous, rocky and dangerous, and posesses few good harbors. About one-third of the land is arable and in cultivation and the remainder, of which a very large portion is mountain waste, is chiefly meadow and pasture. The county is distinguished for its excellent breed of cattle and its fine produce. The moors abound with game and the rivers with salmon and trout. There is coal, which is abundant and worked, ironstone, lead and cooper ore, etc. There are also quarried of freestone and marble.

The manufactures are of wool, linen, cotton, thread, and muslin. There are tanneries and potteries, iron-foundries and iron-works. There are fisheries and salt-works and works for kelp and soda. The population in 1851 was 164,356.

(Source:  Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed., 1851. FHL book 941 E5L.)

Here is a list of the historic parishes of Ayrshire with their parish number. Click on the parish name to see information about records.

Click on the map of Ayrshire to see a larger version. Click on the map again, then click on the 'Expand' button in the lover right-hand corner of the map.

Click here to see an outline map of the parishes of Ayrshire.

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