The Scottish town where Robert Burns’s poems first made it into print

Did you know that Robert Burns’s poetry was first published in Kilmarnock? Read on and find the answers to these questions.

First, though, a wee correction to my recent column on Renfrew. I do not claim to be infallible and am always pleased to hear from anyone spotting a mistake. Apparently I made one a fortnight ago when I referred to Somerled as Lord of the Isles when he fought and lost the Battle of Renfrew in 1164.

Mairead Mackechnie took me to task, writing: “Your columns are really interesting and I look forward to the next one but could I make a slightly pedantic point about the column on Renfrew?

“You stated: ‘Somerled had made himself ... Lord of the Isles ... [and] had frequently rebelled against Malcolm IV... Somerled was King of the Isles, having had his powers confirmed by King Inge in 1158’. The title ‘Lord’ only appeared after reunification, the first being considered to be John I, son of Angus Òg of Bannockburn fame.

“Somerled held the Kingdom of the Isles under Norway to whom it had been ceded in 1098 and though he personally held lands in mainland Argyll under Scotland, it could be argued that Renfrew was an invasion by a foreign power rather than a rebellion. The Hebrideans weren’t legally Scottish at the time.”

On further checking, I think Mairead has the rights of it. Do let me know if you ever spot any other bloopers.

Not long to go in this ancient towns series and Irvine will be the last column but it’s another Ayrshire town I am writing about today.

Anyone with any late suggestions for inclusion can email me at nationalhamish@gmail.com

Towns need to have been founded before the Reformation and must have played some part in our nation’s history. The columns all deal with towns up to the year 1900, as I will be revisiting them in a future series on 20th-century Scotland that I am planning for later this year.

Residents of the Borders need not worry as I am going to do a “special” on the towns of that region, including Peebles, Selkirk, Melrose, Galashiels and Hawick, sometime soon as I consider the whole Borders area to be historic.

Like all the other ancient towns I’ve chosen, Kilmarnock has a history that has been thoroughly researched by proper historians. I am grateful once again to that excellent website electricscotland.com for making available online The History of Kilmarnock by Archibald M’Kay which was first published in 1848.

I also acknowledge the fine work of the Kilmarnock and District History Group (www.kilmarnockhistory.co.uk). It was there I found Dr John Strawhorn’s 1974 paper Kilmarnock – A Historical Survey. I have long admired the work of Strawhorn, who died in 1997, as I consider him to be among the finest scholars of Burns.

All the historians I have researched agree that the origins of Kilmarnock are lost in the mists of time. Archaeological finds in the area suggest native Celtic tribes settled in what is now East Ayrshire during the Iron Age but the first and second-century Roman invaders may well have decided the locals were no threat as there is no evidence of any occupation by the Romans, their nearest fort being at Loudoun Hill some 12 miles to the east.

The town’s name means “the church (or cell) of Marnock”. This man is generally accepted to have been a Christian monk or priest who preached locally and was acclaimed as a saint – most early missionaries were canonised by local people – though when that happened is much disputed.

One tradition has it that St Marnock arrived in 322 but that is surely nonsense as St Ninian – officially recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as the first Scottish saint – did not start his ministry until 397. Archibald M’Kay wrote: “It is stated by some writers that, so far back as the year 322, it was the residence of a St Mernoc or Marnock but it is more probable that the saint settled here about the end of the sixth, or the beginning of the seventh century, when some of the early teachers of Christianity who had been educated at I-colum-kill,

(Iona) under St Columba, established places or religious worship in different parts of our island.

‘HERE, according to tradition, St Marnock founded a church.

It is also said he was interred here within the precincts of the ground he had consecrated.”

I’m with M’Kay on the date but there is no evidence of an early church or attached burial ground in the area and plenty people have looked.

Strawhorn had his own theory that the town took its name from the Macharnock River and when a church was built at the location in the 12th or 13th century, it was dedicated to St Marnock by the authorities at Kilwinning Abbey and thus Kilmarnock was born as a mere hamlet at first. As with so many of our ancient towns, the development of Kilmarnock was led by the clergy at the church which was staffed at first by Kilwinning Abbey and by local nobles. During his reign, King David I (r1124-53) awarded this whole area of Ayrshire to Hugh de Morville, a Norman knight recruited by the king who had been named Constable of Scotland in 1138.

De Morville’s son, also Hugh, was somewhat infamous as he was one of the assassins of St Thomas Becket. Perhaps it was De Morville Jnr’s absence from Scotland which brought about the transfer of the lands around Kilmarnock to the Locart (Lockhart) family. Strawhorn says it may be safely presumed that they built a castle in the town.

Charters at Kilwinning Abbey show that the Balliol family also owned the area in the 13th century but it was the arrival of the Boyd clan which really boosted Kilmarnock and led to several centuries of the Boyds being associated with the town.

An Ayrshire charter from 1205 has the name Robertus de Boyd on it, and in 1263 an early clan chief, also called Robert, shot to fame overnight when he was one of the successful commanders at the Battle of Largs which ended Norwegian claims to territories on the southern Scottish mainland.

King Alexander III gave Boyd an important task and as Boyd rode away, he shouted “confido”, meaning “I trust”. It remains the motto of clan Boyd to this day.

The Boyds sided with William Wallace and then Robert the Bruce, which cost them one of their members, Duncan Boyd, his life in 1306. He was executed by the English for supporting the Bruce.

Clan chief Sir Robert Boyd exacted great revenge, being one of the key commanders of the victorious Scottish army at Bannockburn in 1314. A grateful Robert the Bruce rewarded the Boyds with land confiscated from the Balliols, including Kilmarnock, which they duly made their base.

The Boyds built a castle in the town that was firstly known as Kilmarnock Castle but which survives – much modified – as Dean Castle. A church, a castle, probably a school and a township growing up around them – you see the pattern common to most of our ancient towns.

As the Boyds grew in wealth and prestige, so, too, did their town. The first Lord Boyd of Kilmarnock was given his title by King James II somewhere around 1451 and he was later the Lord Chamberlain of Scotland and one of the regents during the minority of King James III. Getting close to the royal family can be a double-edged sword and Boyd found that out when he arranged the marriage of his son Thomas to Princess Mary, sister of James III.

Thomas Boyd was made Earl of Arran before the marriage but James III considered that the Boyds had insulted his sister and the family fell spectacularly out of favour, the king imprisoning his sister in Kilmarnock Castle until the marriage could be annulled.

It was possibly that falling-out which halted Kilmarnock’s rise to the status of a burgh. While there are records of a town and castle at Kilmarnock in 1534, it was not until after the Reformation – embraced by the townspeople of which was later an important Covenanter centre – that the town was officially declared a burgh by King James IV.

The Boyds being back in favour,in 1592 the charter addresses them as lords of Kilmarnock and gave the town the usual privileges of trading rights, a fair and designated market days.

Town councillors and burgesses followed, and by the start of the 17th-century Kilmarnock was beginning its growth to become the capital of the eastern part of Ayrshire. This brought conflict with Irvine which was jealously guarding its rights as a port.

The cartographer the Rev Timothy Pont observed Kilmarnock in 1605, describing it as a large village in good repair, while Kilmaurs just up the road was of greater size. By the end of that century, Kilmarnock had outstripped all the other burghs in that part of Ayrshire and its growth would continue as the Industrial Revolution came to the town.

It helped that a second royal charter in 1672 gave even more privileges to the town. The Boyds had sided with Charles II at the Restoration and he rewarded the family by conferring the title Earl of Kilmarnock upon them.

The 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock fought for the Hanoverians during the 1715 Jacobite Rising, but the 4th Earl, William Boyd, fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie and raised a local contingent of soldiers for the Rising of 1745-46. He paid for that support with his life, beheaded in London for treason. The title was attainted but later restored to the Boyds a century later.

An important visitor to Kilmarnock in the 1780s was Robert Burns. Our National Bard having tired of his backbreaking farming life, he needed money to fund his intended future employment in the Caribbean slave trade so came to Kilmarnock to the printworks of John Wilson. On July 31, Wilson began to publish Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, and the rest, as they say, is history. Known as the Kilmarnock Edition, that publication has been revered by Scots and other lovers of poetry ever since.

Kilmarnock flourished in the 19th century, its population soaring as the town became an important centre for the textile industry, making everything from bonnets to boots, while coal was found nearby.

Already a thriving market town, Kilmarnock became a centre for the coal industry and the first proper railway in Scotland was built between the town and Troon in 1812 to improve the export of coal. Roads and railways would open up new markets for the town’s products with one of those being the whisky distilled and blended by the sons of grocer Johnnie Walker.

Every town in Scotland in the late 19th century needed a football team, and Kilmarnock FC was officially formed in 1872. Their first ground was an open space used for cricket and rugby and when Killie moved to their current location they brought the name Rugby Park with them. And yes, they do sell the best pies of any football club.