Kilbirnie

Kilbirnie, a town in north Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Garnock, 20½ m. S.W. of Glasgow, with stations on the Glasgow & South-Western and the Caledonian railways. Pop. (1901), 4571\. The industries include flax-spinning, rope works, engineering works, and manufactures of linen thread, wincey, flannels and fishing-nets, and there are iron and steel works and coal mines in the vicinity. The parish church is of historical interest, most of the building dating from the Reformation. In the churchyard are the recumbent effigies of Captain Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill (d. 1603), who in 1575 effected the surprise of Dumbarton Castle, and his lady. Near Kilbirnie Place, a modern mansion, are the ruins of Kilbirnie Castle, an ancient seat of the earls of Crawford, destroyed by fire in 1757. About 1 m. E. is Kilbirnie Loch, 11⁄3 m. long.