Kirkoswald Parish Church

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Kirkoswald Parish Church
Kirkoswald Parish Church (geograph 2545811).jpg
Kirkoswald Parish Church
Kirkoswald Parish Church
55°19′44″N4°46′35″W / 55.3288°N 4.7765°W / 55.3288; -4.7765 Coordinates: 55°19′44″N4°46′35″W / 55.3288°N 4.7765°W / 55.3288; -4.7765
Denomination Church of Scotland
Churchmanship Ministers and Elders in C of S
Website
Administration
Parish Kirkoswald
Presbytery Ayr
Clergy
Minister(s) Vacant since February 3rd 2013

Kirkoswald Parish Church is located in the small village of Kirkoswald (on the A77 road), South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is a parish church in the Church of Scotland.

The church is unusual in that its design was, at the very least, strongly influenced by Robert Adam, one of Scotland's outstanding architects. He was working at the time on his masterpiece, Culzean Castle, and there are many Adam features about the church. It was built in 1777 and is essentially unchanged since. A fire in 1997 was confined within the ducted central heating system, and when that was being removed, wet rot, dry rot and plaster fungus were discovered. The building underwent a substantial renovation at that time, but the interior of the church was restored with only minor changes. The church was fortunate in being able to call on the architectural historians working at Culzean, and the colour scheme is now as close to the original as could be achieved.

This church was built as a replacement for an older church—built around 1220—the ruins of which are still visible in the village, in the middle of the old graveyard ( 55°19′48″N4°46′40″W / 55.3300°N 4.7779°W / 55.3300; -4.7779 (Remains of Kirk Oswald) ). The graveyard has a number of interesting graves, mainly because of the strong links with Robert Burns, whose mother (Agnes Broun) came from this village. The poet also spent around 9 months in the village in 1776, when he was 17, and most of the characters in his poem "Tam o' Shanter" are based on local people whose graves are in the old kirkyard and are suitably marked. One noteworthy grave not linked to Burns work is that of Scipio Kennedy, a black African slave who was brought to Scotland in 1702 and lived on the Culzean estate, and given his freedom in 1725. [1]

The church, which is linked with Fisherton Parish Church, is without a minister since the retiral of Arrick Wilkinson at the beginning of February 2013.

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Maybole Human settlement in Scotland

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Kirkoswald, South Ayrshire Human settlement in Scotland

Kirkoswald is a village and parish in the Carrick district of Ayrshire, Scotland, 1+34 miles from the coast and four miles southwest of Maybole. It takes its name from its kirk (church), dedicated to Oswald of Northumbria, who is said to have won a battle here in the 7th century. The old church, which was built in 1244 and houses the baptismal font of Robert the Bruce, is now a ruin in the grounds of the modern church, which was built in 1777 to a design by Robert Adam. Kirkoswald is also noted for its connection with Robert Burns, whose maternal ancestors, the Brouns, were from the village. Burns also attended school here, and would later base the characters Tam o' Shanter, Kirkton Jean and souter Johnnie on village locals Douglas Graham, Jean Aird and John Davidson, the shoemaker.

Coylton Human settlement in Scotland

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Dunduff Castle Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland

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Scipio Kennedy African slave in 18th-century Scotland

Scipio Kennedy was a slave who was taken as a child from Guinea in West Africa. After being purchased at the age of five or six by Captain Andrew Douglas of Mains, he worked as a slave under his daughter, Jean, wife of Sir John Kennedy, 2nd Baronet of Culzean in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was granted a manumission in 1725, but continued to work for the Kennedy family and was given land on the estate. He married in 1728 and had at least eight children. At least one living descendant is known from the west of Scotland and has published the story of his ancestor in a Scottish national newspaper.

References

  1. "Dig for freed slave's castle home". BBC News Glasgow and West. BBC. 26 October 2007. Retrieved 29 December 2014.

See also