Coylton

The Troon and District Family History Society has published a book of Monumental Inscriptions for Coylton.

The current Parish Church in Hillhead, with its new cemetery, was built in 1836 to replace the old kirk in Low Coylton, which has its own disused kirkyard.

The Troon and District Family History Society has published the the book of Monumental Inscriptions for Coylton.

Coylton is one of the smallest parishes in Ayrshire in geographical sense, but it boasted a sizeable population during the peak of the late 19th and early 20th century mining industry. The parish includes the original settlement or Low Coylton, Upper Coylton or Hillhead, Craighall, Woodside, Rankinston and Joppa. The village is said to take its name from "Auld King Coil of Coilsfield" but old records have it spelt Quiltoun or Cuilton.

The village at the heart of the parish is almost linear, being spread along the length of the Ayr to Cumnock A70 road - which is used by the heavy trucks sustaining the modern open-cast coal mining industry. Low Coylton is the old village with the Coylton Inn and the few remains of an older life, such as the old kirk of possibly medieval origins and last repaired in 1776, plus the former manse dating from 1839 and itself built on the site of the earlier manse. Hillhead has the current parish church, built in 1836, and some houses that were once late 19th century miner's row houses. Joppa too has some of the older stone housing. But the entire village has suffered from a number of housing developments seeking to provide homes for people working in Ayr and district.

Coylton was once a rural village that was transformed by the development of mining in the area and has changed again with the cessation of all coal mining. The farms, such as that at Duchray, have sustained Ayr's agricultural heritage.

The village of Joppa which was reputedly named for an ale-house kept by a man named Hendry. Local lore has it that he fed his customers with salt herrings which became known as "Joppa hams".

An 1837 description of Joppa, including a listing of the key personalities, is given in this extract from Pigot's Directory for Ayrshire. The transcript was provided by Keith Muirhead from Queensland.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• The transcription of the section for Coylton from the National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Coylton to another place.

Coylton was home to one of Ayrshire's celebrated artists. Robert Bryden (1865 - 1939) was born in the village. After a period working in Ayr, he became a modeller of bronze busts which are highly regarded. Among his works are bronze portraits of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in Ayr Town Hall. he also specialised in carved wooded figures, a collection of which are to be found at Rozelle. Bryden is also responsible for the Coylton War Memorial.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference NS427169 (Lat/Lon: 55.420296, -4.487377), Coylton which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Here are some figures showing the parish's population through time: