Mystery surrounds much of history of this ancient Scottish town

That should not have been surprising to me, as I have long known about the vast amount of confusion and debate, not to mention sheer lack of information, that surrounds the history of Scotland in the first millennium.

We know more about the activities of the Romans, who invaded Scotland and settled here and there across the country in the first century, than we do about the kingdoms of the Picts and Scots prior to their union in 843 to form the nation that became Scotland.

That’s because the Romans had written accounts of their activities by the likes of Tacitus, while virtually no writing about Scotland survives from the post-Roman era to late in the first millennium.

READ MORE: Charting the history of Scotland's ancient towns

Scotland also suffered the loss and destruction of royal and clerical records, most heinously appropriated in particular by King Edward I of England and the Protestant reformers of the 16th century.

Today I will be writing about Kilwinning in North Ayrshire on the River Garnock, and next week I will go north to write about Dornoch, having been persuaded to include the town by a reader who has been following the series which can be accessed by online subscribers via the special section on The National’s website.

Irvine will then be my last ancient town.

In answer to many pleas, I am planning a future series on the ancient history of Scotland’s eight cities, while I will return to the ancient towns and bring their histories up to date in my future series on 20th century Scotland.

Meanwhile, further to my column on Kilmarnock a fortnight ago, reader James Craig wrote to correct me about Kilmarnock FC’s date of foundation.

(Image: SNS)

James wrote: “Kilmarnock Football Club was actually founded on January 5, 1869, and not 1872 as stated. This date ensured (until the recent move from amateur status of Queen’s Park) that Kilmarnock FC was the oldest professional club in Scotland – older than Rangers (1872) and Celtic (1888).”

I was aware that football historians have debated Killie’s foundation date for many years, and I was very careful to write “officially formed” or, as the club’s website states, “constituted” in 1872.

In fact, while a club committee was in existence in 1869 for “Kilmarnock Foot-Ball Club”, they played rugby rules and only in 1872 did the club switch to association football. So it’s really a case of what you define as Kilmarnock FC and I have no argument with anyone saying it began life in 1869.

Regular readers will know that I have shown that many of our ancient towns came into existence and developed due to Christian institutions being established in a locality. Kilwinning is a classic example.

There is no evidence at all of any Roman settlement or occupation in the area, but intriguingly, just seven years ago an archaeological dig uncovered remains indicating that there was settlement in the area as far back as the Neolithic and Iron Age.

AOC Archaeology Group states on its website: “AOC undertook archaeological works at Weirston Road, Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, on behalf of Mast Architects and Cunninghame Housing Association in 2017.

“These uncovered a complex story of prehistoric settlement activity dating from the Neolithic and late Iron Age. The Iron Age settlement dominated the site, consisting of multiple palisades enclosing multiple ring-groove roundhouses.

“While the features on site were primarily Iron Age, the finds included late Neolithic pottery and late Neolithic/early Bronze Age lithics, demonstrating new evidence for Neolithic activity in the area. Evidence of Iron Age settlement consisted of two main phases of activity. The early Iron Age activity at Weirston Road (ninth to sixth centuries BC) was represented by a four-post structure and the remnants of a possible roundhouse.

"The late Iron Age features (fourth to first centuries BC) were much larger in scale, represented mainly by multiple ring-groove structures, with associated pits and post-holes, enclosed by timber palisades.

“At least four ring-groove structures were recorded on the site, with additional truncated structures possibly represented by ephemeral curvilinears.”

What a remarkable result, showing that Kilwinning really has a very ancient history.

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It is absolutely fascinating and bears out my assertion that much more archaeology needs to be carried out across Scotland to fill the gaps in our knowledge of this country.

As always, I try to acknowledge my sources and for this column I have again relied on The New Statistical Account (NSA) of Scotland 1845 compiled by the Committee for the Society for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy for the Church of Scotland and published by Blackwood.

I also pay tribute to the work of the Kilwinning Heritage group which does so much to boost knowledge of its town. I also consulted the website kilwinning.org with its account of Timothy Pont, and Ayrshire Nights Entertainment: A Descriptive Guide To The History, Traditions, Antiquities Of The County Of Ayr published in 1894 by John MacIntosh of Galston.

There are numerous versions of how Kilwinning started and we certainly don’t know exactly when, but all the reputable histories say that there was a settlement on the east side of the Garnock which was known as Segdoune.

Modern Kilwinning pays tribute to that incarnation by hosting the annual Segdoune Gala, a 20th century invention. Segdoune may mean “saint’s town”, in which case the saint is most probably St Winning to whom the all-important Kilwinning Abbey was dedicated.

The early 17th century work of cartographer the Rev Timothy Pont states: “It is affirmed yat ye toune and place quher this Abbey of Kilwinin standes yes formerly named SEGDOUNE as the foundatione of the said monastarey beares record.”

Kilwinning Heritage states: “The medieval abbey was probably built on the site of a smaller, much earlier Celtic church set up by the person we now call St Winning. The date of this church is lost in time.

(Image: Contributed)

“One 16th century historian wrote that the saint was dead and buried in Kilwinning by 579, while other sources say he didn’t even arrive until 715. What is true is that a holy man arrived at the mouth of the River Garnock and set up his church or cell here, hence the ‘kil’ prefix in the town’s name.”

Some stones from that early church still survive. Winning (or Winnen, or Winnin) was most probably a missionary sent from Ireland or Lindisfarne – though some say he was born of a noble Scottish family – to preach to the local people and in time-honoured fashion he was acclaimed as a saint upon his death with miracles attributed to him.

We do know that while there was a settlement by the early 12th century, Kilwinning did not have the fortification (ie, a castle) necessary to elevate it to the status of a burgh. No Scottish king ever gave it the title of a royal burgh and any claim of burgh status is dubious – until the town became a police burgh in 1889.

What Kilwinning did have was its abbey. You might think such an important building would have a definite history, but no, its ancient archives have all been lost. The abbey was definitely begun in the 12th century – or was it? I have seen dates from 1140 through 1191 to the 14th and 15th centuries.

As I wrote in my column on Kilmarnock, King David I, who reigned from 1124-53, awarded this whole area of Ayrshire to Hugh de Morville, a Norman knight recruited by the king. He provided great service, most likely of a military nature, to King David and made Constable of Scotland in 1138.

READ MORE: History offers up a lesson for the cause of Scottish independence

De Morville’s son, also Hugh, was somewhat infamous as he was one of the assassins of St Thomas a Becket in 1170, so I do not think he played any part in the establishment of Kilwinning Abbey.

Most likely it was his wealthy brother Sir Richard de Morville who brought monks from the Tironensian abbey at Kelso to staff the new abbey that was constructed over decades and became one of the most significant establishments of its kind until it sadly declined along with the fortunes of the De Morville family. Its ruination was finalised after the Reformation when it was mostly torn down, leaving only the ruins that can be seen today.

Those ruins are now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland which acknowledges that Kilwinning Abbey, while extensive and described as “magnificent”, suffered deprivation almost from the outset: “The abbey was never especially well endowed, and when the De Morville estates passed to Roland of Galloway in 1196 there was probably a major loss of patronage.

“From the building’s scant remains and frequent changes in masonry types, we can see the abbey was the result of several building operations. Its poor endowments may have resulted in difficulties carrying out a large-scale extended build.”

The building of the abbey did bring something to Kilwinning which is acknowledged worldwide – Scottish freemasonry. It is quite extraordinary that a small village grew to have such a dominant position in Masonic culture.

I do not know why this happened – it is, of course, a secret – but I am willing to speculate that during the abbey’s construction, travelling masons from the Continent came to Kilwinning where they developed a “lodge”.

Alan and Julia Keay in their magisterial Encyclopaedia of Scotland quote publisher Archibald Fullerton as saying these masons “communicated their secret to some of the more respectable natives and thus formed the earliest lodge of Scottish freemasons”.

I don’t have the space to go into the entire history of Scottish freemasonry but suffice it to say that after many decades of disputation, the special position of Kilwinning Lodge was recognised by the Grand Lodge, which made the “Scottish Rite” so important in world freemasonry. That’s why Kilwinning is the mother lodge with the designation Lodge 0 (say “nothing”, never “zero”).

Kilwinning’s importance declined but its place in history was assured by none other than Sir Walter Scott in his novel Old Mortality, which features the town’s famous “Papingo” archery tournament.

John MacIntosh describes it thus: “Once a year, generally in the month of June, they make a grand exhibition. The principal shooting is at a parrot, anciently called the Papingo and well known under that name in heraldry but now called the Popinjay.

“The prize shot for the game of Papingo, in former times, was a piece of fine Persian Taffetie, valued at not less than twenty pound (Scots) and which they termed a ‘berm’.

“The person who gained the same, by shooting down the Papingo on the day appointed for that effect, had the said berm tied about his waist as a badge of honour and was thereupon denominated captain, and made a parade through the town, attended by the former captains and the rest of the archers.

“The sport fell into desuetude for some years, and was revived about 1688, the prize being changed to a piece of silver plate, which was given annually to the company by the senior surviving archer.”

The Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers keeps alive this tradition to this day and all credit to them as one of the world’s oldest archery groups.

I’ll return to Kilwinning in future columns, bringing the ancient towns up to date.