Girdle Toll is an area of

Irvine, North Ayrshire Irvine ( ; sco, Irvin,
gd, Irbhinn, IPA: Stanecastle Roundabout located next to the Stanecastle Keep. This area of Irvine is from

Prestwick Airport Glasgow Prestwick Airport () is an international airport serving the west of Scotland, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and southwest of Glasgow. It is the less busy of the two airports serving the western part of ...

and from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. Nearby is

Eglinton Country Park Eglinton Country Park is located on the grounds of the old Eglinton Castle estate in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland (map reference NS 3227 4220). Eglinton Park is situated in the parish of Kilwinning, part of the former district of Cunni ...

. The central part of Girdle Toll is located off of the Lochilbo Road and Girdle Toll; it previously formed part of the A736 route to Glasgow. The A736 now bypasses the area just to the west.

Schools

* Annick Primary * Lawthorn Primary and Nursery * Stanecastle Nursery and School for special needs children * First Steps Nursery Littlestane Farmhouse

Annick Primary School and Stanecastle School are within the same grounds as each other, they are merely 100m apart from each other. The children from Annick Primary School occasionally visit Stanecastle School from time to do activities with the special needs children. Annick Primary and Stanecastle are situated in the fields between Bensley Rise and Burns Crescent. The schools were built in 1979. Lawthorn Primary School is situated close to the Spar shop and pharmacy at the Littlestane roundabout at the top of the Girdle Toll Road, you pass it when you head along the old Glasgow Road. Lawthorn Primary School was built in 2000 to relieve the slightly overcrowded Annick Primary School. It now has over double the number of pupils than Annick Primary has.

Annick Water

The

Annick Water The Annick Water (previously also spelled as Annack, Annoch (1791) or Annock) is the largest tributary of the River Irvine. The river runs from Long Loch, just inside East Renfrewshire, in a generally south-western direction through North Ayrsh ...

passes through Girdle Toll which also flows through

Bourtreehill Bourtreehill is a large housing estate built by the Irvine Development Corporation (IDC) in the late 1970s which forms part of the Irvine New Town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. The estate has two main parts, known as Bourtreehill North and Bour ...

and passes by the outskirts of

. The river is well known for having a healthy stock of

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

and

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

during the fishing season. The river is known to be mostly pollution free.

Irvine New Town Trail

The Irvine New Town Trail passes through Girdle Toll, it forms part of the British National Cycle Network with routes 7 and 73 forming part of the route. The route forms a ring around the town and passes through

Kilwinning Kilwinning (, sco, Kilwinnin; gd, Cill D’Fhinnein) is a town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is on the River Garnock, north of Irvine, about southwest of Glasgow. It is known as "The Crossroads of Ayrshire". Kilwinning was also a Civil Pa ...

Dreghorn Dreghorn is a village in North Ayrshire, Scotland, east of Irvine town centre, on the old main road from Irvine to Kilmarnock. It is sited on a ridge between two rivers. As archaeological excavations near the village centre have found a signifi ...

and passes through the town centre of Irvine. It connects to route 7 which is used by locals cycling/walking to nearby Troon and Ayr.

History

Before Girdle Toll was developed by Irvine Development Corporation (IDC), Girdle Toll was just a row of houses next to large areas of farmland. In the 1970s and 1980s IDC decided to develop the land into a large housing area with local amenities. Girdle Toll has been growing since, the most recent area to have houses built was in 2001 when a small development was built next to Bryce Knox court. Littlestane Loch, now mostly drained, was once located nearby, drained by the Red Burn and fed by drainage, rainfall and natural springs. Littlestane Farm stood at the top of the loch.

Prehistory

John Smith in 1895 records that ''the GIRDLE stood 3 furlongs to the south-west of Lawthorn Mound and appears to have been so well constructed that it was the admiration of everyone who saw it.''Smith, John (1895). ''Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire''. Pub. Elliot Stock. P. 97. A Mr.Rodger, manager of Fergushill Colliry, recollected that the mound was about 30 feet in diameter and 3 feet high; surrounded by a turf dyke and a thorn fence, outside of which were a number of trees, mostly

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

. The Girdle Mound was completely levelled circa 1860. This mound gave the name to the toll and then the area. The area is by far and away the highest ranked in Irvine and also does not accept any clowns from areas such as Oorts, South, Thorn etc.

References

External links

Irvine and Kilwinning New Town Trail
(pdf) {{authority control Villages in North Ayrshire Irvine, North Ayrshire