River Irvine - Micro History

Micro History

Pont in 1604–08 records that so thickly was the district about Stewarton and along the banks of the Irvine populated for a space of three or four miles "that well travelled men in divers parts of Europe (affirm) that they have seen walled cities not so well or near planted with houses so near each other as they are here, wherethrough it is so populous that, at the ringing of a bell in the night for a few hours, there have seen convene 3000 able men, well-horsed and armed."

Shewalton Sand Pits is a Scottish Wildlife Trust nature reserve on the River Irvine near Irvine.

Immense labour has been expended over the years in retaining building walls on either side of many of the rivers and burns. At Chapeltoun on the Annick Water even the Chapel Burn bed is 'cobbled'. This drystone walling was important in reducing the erosion of the river banks.

The Brackenburn near Kilmaurs has been misnamed as the Garrier by the Ordnance Survey since the 1860s. When burns or rivers join it is usually the largest that decides the name of the river downstream, unless the name changes completely, such as the Kilmarnock Water forming from the Fenwick and Craufurdland Waters. Occasionally a water course is reduced in volume due to changes upstream, a case in point being the Garrier, which used to drain Buiston Loch near Kilmaurs. This was drained as part of agricultural improvements and now the Garrier is only seasonal, even though it keeps the name Garrier, even when joined by the Brackenburn and the Lochrig burns that flow all year.

It was not easy being a miller, for instance some people held the belief that it was wrong to use water artificially; that to turn water from its course was to act against God's plan. Ancient mills, it was believed, had been piously placed by their forefathers where they could be worked according to God's order, without artificially embanking the water or turning it from its natural course, which would be sinful.

New field drainage work on farms in the 18th and 19th centuries had dramatic effects on water courses, most often recorded through complaints by millers that they could no longer get enough water to turn their mills waterwheels.

The weir at Dalgarven on the River Garnock is made of boulders which are carefully placed and locked together to create a natural millpond to supply a good head of water to the wheel through the lade. The weir is built on a natural dyke across the Garnock at this point, its existence being carefully exploited by the monks of Kilwinning Abbey who chose the site for Dalgarven Mill.

The Automatic tide signalling apparatus at Irvine harbour is probably unique, having been invented and patented by Martin Boyd, the Irvine harbour master, in 1905 and opened in 1906.

In February 2009 the Lochrig or Lochridge Burn was severely polluted with diesel oil spilled from a train derailed at the railway bridge near Peacockbank farm, Stewarton. Mitigation measures were put in place, however pollution eventually reached the River Irvine.