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Galston
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"Galston, town and par. with ry. sta., Ayrshire, on river Irvine, 5 miles SE. of Kilmarnock -- par., 15,243 ac., pop. 5961; town, pop. 4085; P.O., T.O., 2 Banks; a three-arch bridge across the river connects the town with its suburb in Loudoun par. Galston has mfrs. of muslins and blankets; it is also the centre of an extensive coalfield and of an important agricultural district."
John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887
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| Darvel, Church of Scotland |
| Galston, Church of Scotland |
The following churches were to be found in the town of Galston:
- Galston Parish Church, built in 1808.
- Barr Street Church, built in 1859.
- Roman Catholic Church of St Sophia, built in a byzantine style in 1885.
The history of the Parish Church can be found here.
Galston is a moderately sized parish in the valley of the River Irvine. It is in the east of the county, lying between Loudoun to the north, and Sorn to the south. The parish is concentrated in the town of Galston itself, which lies just south of the A71 road between Ayr and Stonehouse in Lanark. Galston, despite having some ancient elements, is marked by the growth of housing tenements and estates during the period of the coal industry and later in the 1970s.
Galston's original economy was based on weaving, originally of blankets from local wool, but later specialising in lawns and gauze using imported cotton. The 19th and first half of the 20th century saw the rise and eventual fall of the coal industry which has affected much of the area.
Barr Castle, standing in Barr Street, Galston, is a 15th century square tower with a later hipped roof. The castle was built for the Lockharts of Barr. The castle is now used as a masonic hall.
Cessnock Castle, a plain rectangular keep dating from the 15th century, lies in a wooded area south-east of Galston.
An 1837 description of Galston, including a listing of the key personalities of the town, is given in this extract from Pigot's Directory for Ayrshire. The transcript was provided by Keith Muirhead from Queensland.
- The transcription of the section for Galston from the National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.
- Ask for a calculation of the distance from Galston to another place.
You can see maps centred on OS grid reference NS545347 (Lat/Lon: 55.584107, -4.310683), Galston 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.