kyle

KYLE

The sheriffdom of Ayr comprised of Cunningham in the North, Carrick in the south with Kyle sandwiched in between. The district or ancient kingdom of Kyle was said to take its name from Coel Hen the head of a Dark Age British dynasty, better known as Old King Cole - 'that merry auld sowl'.

Kyle in fact was sub-divided into two parts Kyle Stewart in the north and King's Kyle in the south, sharing a border with the Sheriffdom of Nithsdale. The parish and the barony of Cumnock were in King's Kyle with the parish church in what is the modern-day town of Cumnock and the baronial seat at Cumnock Castle, the centre of the modern-day town of New Cumnock.

The division of the parish of Cumnock into the new parishes of Old Cumnock and New Cumnock took place in 1650 some 50 years or so after Pont produced his manuscript of Kyle and therefore neither the place-name Old Cumnock or New Cumnock would have appeared in the Pont manuscript.

COILA PROVINCIA

Blaeu published his map of Kyle, based on Pont's manuscript and called Coila Provincia in his Atlus Novus in 1654, only 4 years after the creation of the new parishes and therefore understandably the place-names of Old Cumnock and New Cumnock still fail to appear.

Indeed the only reference to Cumnock in Coila Provincia is Kumnock Caft , i.e. the community that would evolve into the town of New Cumnock. Considering Timothy Pont's ecclesiastical background it is inconceivable to think that he would not have recorded Cumnock Kirk in his manuscript of Kyle. However, Blaeu does not record Cumnock Kirk by name or symbol in Coila Provincia and we can only assume he has overlooked it or decided to omit it, most probably to prevent congestion in the map in that vicinity of the parish of Cumnock.

Both Kirk and Castle appear as Cunok kirk and Cannok caft in Willem and Johan Blaeu's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1635) and in John Speed's The Kingdome of Scotland (1630) where both engravings are based on the outline of Gerard Mercator (1595). Some hundred years later in Hermann's Moll's map of the South part of the Shire of Air (1725) the kirk is once again anonymous and only Kumuck Caftle is shown. Of course by 1725 there would have been parish kirks at both Old Cumnock and New Cumnock, and therefore Moll's map must be based on some earlier work.

Patrick, 8^th Earl of Dunbar and 1^st Earl of March, held the barony of Cumnock as early as 1296. The property was passed on to a cadet branch of the family and in 1474 was in the possession of Euphemia Dunbar of Cumnock (1474). She was to marry Sir James Dunbar, son of Alexander Dunbar of Westfield, Sheriff of Murray, the half-brother of the aforementioned Mary Dunbar. The Dunbar's sold of the barony of Cumnock in 1612 and even at that time they were absentee barons, preferring to live in their property of Westfield.

Another descendant of Crichton of that Ilk, married Isobel Ross of Sanquhar (ca. 1300) and acquired half of the barony of Sanquhar, which would share a border with the barony of Cumnock at that time. From this line came the 1^st Earl of Dumfries created in 1633 for William Crichton (7^th Lord Crichton of Sanquhar, Viscount of Ayr). He acquired the barony of Cumnock for a short time (1630-1637) before his son William the 2^nd Earl (1642-1691) put a more permanent hold on these lands. [ Nesbit]

The old Cumnock Castle in the new parish of New Cumnock had outlived its usefulness as a baronial seat. In the following century the grand Dumfries House was erected in the parish of Old Cumnock a fitting home for a family that as the Crichton-Stuarts were soon to add the Marquis of Bute to their collection of titles.

It seems fitting from a New Cumnock perspective that Blaeu's Coila Provincia is dedicated to a member of the Crichton family descended from the Dunbars, one time Barons of Cumnock with their baronial seat at Cumnock Castle.

PONT & BLAEU