Dalry

Dalry (Gaelic, “the field of the king”), a mining and manufacturing town of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Garnock, 23¼ m. S.W. of Glasgow, by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5316. The public buildings include the library and reading-room, the assembly rooms, Davidshill hospital, Temperance hall and night asylum. There is a public park. The industries consist of woollen factories, worsted spinning, box-, cabinet-, coke- and brick-making, machine-knitting, currying and the manufacture of aerated waters. Coal and iron are found, but mining is not extensively pursued. In the vicinity are the iron works of Blair and Glengarnock, and a curious stalactite cave, known as Elf House, 30 ft. high and about 200 ft. long, offering some resemblance to a pointed aisle. Rye Water flows into the Garnock close to the town. Captain Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill (1530-1603), the captor of Dumbarton Castle, spent the closing years of his life at Dalry, where a considerable estate had been granted to him.