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My Town
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Kilmarnock is a fairly small town in the south west area of Scotland. approximately 20 miles south of Glasgow. The above picture shows the Dean Castle - but don't be fooled by the brilliant sunshine - it's usually raining, snowing or gale force winds!! For such a small town Kilmarnock is famous for quite a few things.
Kilmarnock
is home to Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskey - one of Scotland's most widely known exports.
It is possible to tour the facilities and sample the products :o)
The first edition of the poems of Robert Burns was printed in Kilmarnock.
Kilmarnock is
home to Scotland's oldest professional football team - Killie. Organised in 1869,
they play at Rugby Park, in an 18,120 seat stadium which was built in 1996. They won
the Scottish Cup in 1997! They are at present second in the ten-team premier
division, and are battling Rangers for the League title. (How quickly
things change....... are now battling to stay in the Premier League!) They boast among their
number two Scottish internationalists - Ian Durrant and Ally McCoist.
Paper Roses - Killie's national anthem - if anyone knows why e-mail me!
The earliest part of the Dean Castle is a fourteenth century keep, constructed not long after the lands of Kilmarnock and West Kilbride were given by King Robert the Bruce to Sir Robert Boyd as a reward for his faithful service in thick and thin during Bruce's fight for Scottish independence against Edward I and Edward II of England.
William
Wallace (of Braveheart fame). The name of Wallace is likely derived from Walensis,
meaning a Briton from the Strathclyde region of Scotland, where the people were from the
same origins as the Welsh.
Richard Walensis lived at Riccarton, near Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, in the 1160's. His grandson, Adam Walays, had two sons, Adam and Malcolm. Malcolm was the father of the hero William Wallace. (To those of you from Renfrewshire - this has been substantiated by the Clan Wallace!)
William Wallace was born around 1274 and was drawn into the campaign for Scottish Independence, after the death of King Alexander III in 1286. He was betrayed and executed in London in 1305. He had no male heirs, but the Wallace family continued, and several branches of it still exist today. Clan Wallace members worked with Mel Gibson before and during the shooting of Braveheart.
Kilmarnock is the birthplace of Kirsty Wark, William McIlvanney (author) and the discoverer of penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming was born in nearby Newmilns, and attended Kilmarnock Academy.
So there you have my town - not the best place in the world to live, but not the worst either!
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