EVER wondered why Kilmarnock FC, one of the oldest football clubs in Scotland, play their home games at Rugby Park?
Did you know that Robert Burns’s poetry was first published in Kilmarnock? Read on and find the answers to these questions.
“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.”
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.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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