Old West Kirk
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Old West Kirk
The Old West Kirk of the Church of Scotland, authorised by a 1589 Royal Charter and first opened in 1591, is noted as the first Presbyterian church built in Scotland following the Scottish Reformation, and the first approved by the Parliament of Scotland. At an early stage, east and west aisles were added as transepts, giving the church its cruciform plan. Over time, the town of Greenock grew around the church, which was enlarged and had galleries added to accommodate the congregation. From 1761 other churches were built to serve the growing population, and in 1841 the Old West Kirk was closed when the congregation moved to a new West Kirk. The old kirk gradually became derelict, then it was heavily restored and reopened on Christmas Day 1864. The architect James Salmon supervised the works and added a tower, and the church subsequently incorporated a major collection of Pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows. Shipyards developed between the churchyard and the Clyde, and in 1917 H ...
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Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands. Scotland is divided into 32 administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scott ...
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Scottish Feudal Barony
In Scotland, a baron or baroness is the head of a feudal barony, also known as a prescriptive barony. This used to be attached to a particular piece of land on which was situated the ''caput'' (Latin for "head") or essence of the barony, normally a building, such as a castle or manor house. Accordingly, the owner of the piece of land containing the ''caput'' was called a baron or baroness. According to Grant, there were around 350 identifiable local baronies in Scotland by the early fifteenth century and these could mostly be mapped against local parish boundaries. The term baron was in general use from the thirteenth century to describe what would have been known in England as a knight of the shire.Alexander Grant, "Franchises North of the Border: Baronies and Regalities in Medieval Scotland", Chapter 9, Michael Prestwich. ed., ''Liberties and Identities in Medieval Britain and Ireland'' (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2008) The 1896 edition of ''Green's Encyclopaedia of the Law o ...
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James VI And I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, and thus a potential successor to all three thrones. He succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government until 1583. In 1603, he succeeded Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, who died childless. He ...
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Mile
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English feet, or 1,760 yards. The statute mile was standardised between the British Commonwealth and the United States by an international agreement in 1959, when it was formally redefined with respect to SI units as exactly . With qualifiers, ''mile'' is also used to describe or translate a wide range of units derived from or roughly equivalent to the Roman mile, such as the nautical mile (now exactly), the Italian mile (roughly ), and the Chinese mile (now exactly). The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 Roman feet but the greater importance of furlongs in Elizabethan-era England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to or in 1593. This form of the mile then spread across the British Empire, some successor states of which ...
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Inverkip
Inverkip (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Chip'') is a village and parish in the Inverclyde council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland, southwest of Greenock and north of Largs on the A78 trunk road. The village takes its name from the River Kip and is served by Inverkip railway station. History Origins In 1170 Baldwin de Bigres, Sheriff of Lanark, granted a stretch of land to the monks of Paisley Abbey. This land was described as "The pennyland between the rivulets Kip and Daff". Pennyland is an old Scots word of Norse origin which is used to describe a small piece of land, the rent for which is one penny per year. The area granted to the monks in 1170 equates to much of the north section of today's village, from the bridge over the Daff on Main Street, near Inverkip Hotel to the old bridge over the River Kip at Bridgend Cottages. Extending to the coast at the old bridge at Kip Marina and probably as far inland as the railway line. ...
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Saint Blane
Saint Blane (Old Irish ''Bláán'', died 590) was a bishop and confessor in Scotland, born on the Isle of Bute, date unknown; died 590. His feast is kept on 10 August. Late (medieval) Scottish texts relate that his mother was Irish and that Saint Cathan was her brother. It was Cathan who saw to Blane's education in Ireland under Saints Comgall and Kenneth. Blane became a monk, went to Scotland, and was eventually bishop among the Picts. Several miracles are related to him, among them the restoration of a dead boy to life. The Aberdeen Breviary gives these and other details of the saint's life, which are rejected, however, by the Bollandists. There can be no doubt that devotion to St Blane was, from early times, popular in Scotland. There was a church of St Blane in Dumfries and another at Kilblane. In Greenock, the place name Kilblain is thought to refer to a cell or chapel of St Blane. There is a well in the strath, or valley, called Blane's Well and also a place in the ne ...
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Gourock
Gourock ( ; gd, Guireag ) is a town in the Inverclyde council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its main function today is as a residential area, extending contiguously from Greenock, with a railway terminus and ferry services across the Clyde. History The name Gourock comes from a Gaelic word for "pimple", in reference to the hill above the town. As far back as 1494 it is recorded that James IV sailed from the shore at Gourock to quell the rebellious Highland clans. Two hundred years later William and Mary granted a Charter in favour of Stewart of Castlemilk which raised Gourock to a Burgh of Barony. In 1784 the lands of Gourock were purchased by Duncan Darroch, a former merchant in Jamaica. He built Gourock House near the site of the castle in what the family eventually gifted to the town as Darroch Park, later renamed by the council as Gourock Park. From a sma ...
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Clan Schaw
Clan Schaw is a Lowland Scottish clan. Clan Schaw does not have a chief recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, therefore the clan has no standing under Scots Law. Clan Schaw is an armigerous clan, meaning that it had at one time a chief who possessed the chiefly arms, however no one at present is in possession of such arms. The clan has no connection with the similarly named Clan Shaw of Tordarroch (commonly known as ''Clan Shaw'') which is one of the Highland clans of the Clan Chattan Confederation. Uncertain origins In George Crawfurd's 18th century publication, ''History of Renfrewshire'', he stated that the antiquary Sir George Mackenzie claimed the clan descended from "Shiach, a son of MacDuff Earl of Fife" from whom the clan took its name. It has also been said the clan descends from a second son of Duncan, Earl of Fife, who was cup bearer to the king of Scots. Later, the 18th century heraldist Alexander Nisbet claimed that the clan may have acted as cup bearers to ...
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Easter Greenock Castle
Easter Greenock Castle was a castle of unknown design near the burgh of Greenock, Scotland. History Construction and location Built sometime in the mid-sixteenth century, the castle formed the centre of the lands and estates of Barony of Cartsburn, Cartsburn and Easter Greenock. These belonged to the Crawfords of Kilbirnie in Ayrshire who acquired them during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. Cartsburn extends from the Carts Burn on the west along the River Clyde to the point where the boundary falls out at Old Clyde Forge. The lands of Cartsburn were originally part of the barony of Kilbirnie and became the Property, patrimony of a younger brother of that family, whose posterity ended in the person of David Crawford of Cartsburn in the reign of Charles I of England, Charles I. 17th century By the mid- seventeenth century the lands of Cartsburn and Cartsdyke belonged to John Crawford of Kilbirnie who in 1641, because of his distinguished services to the Crown during the early year ...
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Barony And Castle Of Kilbirnie
The substantial remains of the old castle and sixteenth century manor house of Kilbirnie lie west of the town of Kilbirnie in North Ayrshire, Scotland, on the lower slopes of the Glengarnock Hills, in the old Barony of Kilbirnie. The building is also variously known as the Place of Kilbirnie, The Place, or Kilbirnie House. The site lies close to a stream and small but deep ravine that once provided a defensive function for the castle site. The castle and manor house themselves are not in the grounds of the Kilbirnie Place Golf Club, which was itself laid out in 1925 on the old landscaped 'pleasure grounds' once attached to the castle site. The OS maps show that a much later estate and house called Place was located nearby, built by the Knox family but now mostly demolished. History The name "Kilbirnie" is derived from the Gaelic language, and means "Church of St Brendan". The parish was divided into three baronies: Kilbirnie, Ladyland, and Glengarnock. The feudal Barony of ...
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Finnart
The lands of Finnart to the west of Greenock belonged to the Earl of Douglas in medieval times. Around 1455 they were forfeited to the crown. Finnart was given to the Hamiltons, while the western part of the barony of Finnart went to Stewart of Castlemilk and became the barony of Finnart-Stewart, or Gourock. Sir James Hamilton of Finnart inherited the barony and rose to high office, but was beheaded and his estates forfeited, with his Finnart lands going to Shaw of Sauchie and Greenock. These estates subsequently became the west end of Greenock. The northern part of the Finnart-Stewart estates forms the main part of modern Gourock, while the remainder now accommodates the housing estates of south-west Greenock. Location The Douglas lands of Finnart lay west of the barony of Greenock, the boundary being "the Hole or West-burn": the burn is culverted under the modern town centre at Westburn Street, immediately to the west of ''The Oak Mall'' indoor shopping centre, and from there ...
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Kilmacolm
Kilmacolm () is a village and civil parish in the Inverclyde council area, and the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the northern slope of the Gryffe Valley, southeast of Greenock and around west of the city of Glasgow. The village has a population of around 4,000 and is part of a wider civil parish which covers a large rural hinterland of containing within it the smaller settlement of Quarrier's Village, originally established as a 19th-century residential orphans' home. The area surrounding the village was settled in prehistoric times and emerged as part of a feudal society with the parish divided between separate estates for much of its history. The village itself remained small, providing services to nearby farm communities and acting as a religious hub for the parish. The name of the village derives from the Scottish Gaelic ''Cill MoCholuim'', indicating the dedication of its church to St Columba. The parish church ...
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