KILMALLOCK, a market town of county Limerick, Ireland, in the east parliamentary division, 124¼ m. S.W. of Dublin by the Great Southern & Western main line. Pop. (1901), 1206. It commands a natural route (now followed by the railway) through the hills to the south and south-west, and is a site of great historical interest. It received a charter in the reign of Edward III., at which time it was walled and fortified, and entered by four gates, two of which remain. It was a military post of importance in Elizabeth’s reign, but its fortifications were for the most part demolished by order of Cromwell. Two castellated mansions are still to be seen. The church of St Peter and St Paul belonged to a former abbey, and has a tower at the north-west corner which is a converted round tower. The Dominican Abbey, of the 13th century, has Early English remains of great beauty and a tomb to Edmund, the last of the White Knights, a branch of the family of Desmond intimately connected with Kilmallock, who received their title from Edward III. at the battle of Halidon Hill. The foundation of Kilmallock, however, is attributed to the Geraldines, who had several towns in this vicinity. Eight miles from the town is Lough Gur, near which are numerous stone circles and other remains. Kilmallock returned two members to the Irish parliament.
KILMARNOCK, a municipal and police burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, on Kilmarnock Water, a tributary of the Irvine, 24 m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 35,091. Among the chief buildings are the town hall, court-house, corn-exchange (with the Albert Tower, 110 ft. high), observatory, academy, corporation art gallery, institute (containing a free library and a museum), Kay schools, School of Science and Art, Athenaeum, theatre, infirmary, Agricultural Hall, and Philosophical Institution. The grounds of Kilmarnock House, presented to the town in 1893, were laid out as a public park. In Kay Park (48¾ acres), purchased from the duke of Portland for £9000, stands the Burns Memorial, consisting of two storeys and a tower, and containing a museum in which have been placed many important MSS. of the poet and the McKie library of Burns’s books. The marble statue of the poet, by W. G. Stevenson, stands on a terrace on the southern face. A Reformers’ monument was unveiled in Kay Park in 1885. Kilmarnock rose into importance in the 17th century by its production of striped woollen “Kilmarnock cowls” and broad blue bonnets, and afterwards acquired a great name for its Brussels, Turkey and Scottish carpets. Tweeds, blankets, shawls, tartans, lace curtains, cottons and winceys are also produced. The boot and shoe trade is prosperous, and there are extensive engineering and hydraulic machinery works. But the iron industry is prominent, the town being situated in the midst of a rich mineral region. Here, too, are the workshops of the Glasgow & South-Western railway company. Kilmarnock is famous for its dairy produce, and every October holds the largest cheese-show in Scotland. The neighbourhood abounds in freestone and coal. The burgh, which is governed by a provost and council, unites with Dumbarton, Port Glasgow, Renfrew and Rutherglen in returning one member to parliament. Alexander Smith, the poet (1830-1867), whose father was a lace-pattern designer, and Sir James Shaw (1764-1843), lord mayor of London in 1806, to whom a statue was erected in the town in 1848, were natives of Kilmarnock. It dates from the 15th century, and in 1591 was made a burgh of barony under the Boyds, the ruling house of the district. The last Boyd who bore the title of Lord Kilmarnock was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, in 1746, for his share in the Jacobite rising. The first edition of Robert Burns’s poems was published here in 1786.
KILMAURS, a town in the Cunningham division of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Carmel, 21½ m. S. by W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 1803. Once noted for its cutlery, the chief industries now are shoe and bonnet factories, and there are iron and coal mines in the neighbourhood. The parish church dates from 1170, and was dedicated either to the Virgin or to a Scottish saint of the 9th century called Maure. It was enlarged in 1403 and in great part rebuilt in 1888. Adjoining it is the burial-place of the earls of Glencairn, the leading personages in the district during several centuries, some of whom bore the style of Lord Kilmaurs. Their family name was Cunningham, adopted probably from the manor which they acquired in the 12th century. The town was made a burgh of barony in 1527 by the earl of that date. Burns’s patron, the thirteenth earl, on whose death the poet wrote his touching “Lament,” sold the Kllmaurs estate in 1786 to the marchioness of Titchfield.
KILN (O.E. cylene, from the Lat. culina, a kitchen, cooking-stove), a place for burning, baking or drying. Kilns may be divided into two classes—those in which the materials come into actual contact with the flames, and those in which the furnace is beneath or surrounding the oven. Lime-kilns are of the first class, and brick-kilns, pottery-kilns, &c., of the second, which also includes places for merely drying materials, such as hop-kilns, usually called “oasts” or “oast-houses.”
KILPATRICK, NEW, or EAST, also called Bearsden, a town of Dumbartonshire, Scotland, 5½ m. N.W. of Glasgow by road, with a station on the North British railway company’s branch line from Glasgow to Milngavie. Pop. (1901), 2705. The town is largely inhabited by business men from Glasgow. The public buildings include the Shaw convalescent home, Buchanan, Retreat, house of refuge for girls, library, and St Peter’s College, a fine structure, presented to the Roman Catholic Church in 1892 by the archbishop of Glasgow. There is some coal-mining, and lime is manufactured. Remains of the Wall of Antoninus are close to the town. At Garscube and Garscadden, both within 1½ m. of New Kilpatrick, are extensive iron-works, and at the former place coal is mined and stone quarried.