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Robert Burns
Wallace

As I learn more about this area, I want to add more information here.  If you have any information to contribute, please email me.

In the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961, Kilmarnock is described:

KILMARNOCK, a large burgh of Ayrshire, Scot., on Kilmarnock water, a tributary of the Irvine, 21 mi. S.S.W. of Glasgow by road. Pop. (1951) 42,123. Area 6.1 sq.mi. Though the town has many industries, it still possesses the core of "the streets and neuks of Killie" celebrated by Robert Burns. The chief buildings are the Court house, the Palace theatre (with the Albert tower, 110 ft. high), the academy where Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, was educated, the Dick institute (containing a public library, a museum and art gallery) and the Laugh Kirk, with its high plain tower (1410), a building, like the Angel hotel associated with Burns. In Kay park (30 ¼ ac.), purchased from the duke of Portland, stands the Burns memorial, consisting of two stories and a tower, and containing a museum in which have been placed many manuscripts and relics of the poet and the McKie library of Burns's books. A marble statue of the poet, by W. G. Stevenson, stands on a terrace on the southern face. The first edition of Burns’s poems was published in Kilmarnock in 1786. A Reformers’ monument was unveiled in Kay park in 1885. Dean castle, to the north of the town, which was burned down in 1735, was restored in 1915.

Kilmarnock rose into importance in the 17th century by its production of striped woollen "Kilmarnock cowls" (Scotch bonnets), and afterward acquired a name for its carpets, which it still maintains. A large modern factory, completed in 1952 at Burnside, makes carpets which are sent all over the world. In the town, hosiery, bonnets and Madras muslin are made and there are auxiliary industries such as dyeing and wool scouring. Kilmarnock is also known for its engineering, especially locomotives, bearings and hydraulic equipment; its whisky blending (established there in 1820 by Johnny Walker, a grocer); the manufacture of boots and shoes; and its dairy produce.

Alexander Smith, the poet (I830-67), whose father was a lace-pattern designer, and Sir James Shaw (1764-1843), lord mayor of London in 1806, to whom a statue was erected in the town in 1848, were natives of Kilmarnock. The town dates from the 15th century, and in 1591 was made a burgh of barony under the Boyds, the ruling house of the district. The last Boyd who bore the title of Lord Kilmarnock was beheaded on Tower hill, London, in 1746, for his share in the Jacobite rising. The town was formed into a parliamentary burgh in 1832 and was extended by nearly 2,000 ac. In 1935.

Last Updated:  January 15, 2002
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