February 2024 – Kilbirnie, Local History and Cultural Things

Hugh McDonald Watson, Soldier WW2.

I don’t know much about him except that he lived in Muirend Street. Kilbirnie. He became quite well known.

Let me know if you have any further information.

The photo came from The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald.

Beith High Church, Windows and Tower

The Bing, Fudstone, Kilbirnie (a poem)

I couldn’t resist publishing this again, it’s my poem about the “Bing” which was a huge amount of debris that sat as a mound at the corner or Place View and Newhouse Drive, Kilbirnie before it was converted into a small playpark for kids around 1983 or 1984.

In Scottish terminology, a “Bing” refers to a large pile or heap of waste material, especially the waste rock and debris piled up in the process of mining, such as coal mining. These Bings are remnants of the industrial era, particularly in Scotland’s coal mining regions, where they were created from the spoil that was brought to the surface during the mining process. Over time, some of these Bings have become landmarks or have been reclaimed for various uses, while others still dominate parts of the Scottish landscape.

National Union of Distributive Allied Workers 1937 Photo

Catherine Greenan Loughran, John Loughran, Margaret Kane or Cain.

This picture is of my Great Great Grandmother Margaret Loughran (maiden name Kane or Cain) from Dunnamore, nr. Cookstown Northern Ireland. Her son John Loughran and his wife Catherine Greenan (my Great Grandparents) and three of their daughters, Maggie, Katie and Rose.

Margaret ended up in Kilwinning living with the family – old people used to say “something happened” which is code for marital problems which would account for her leaving Ireland and going to Kilwinning. She died in Kilwinning in 1908. The family had a tradition of returning people to Ireland when they died so I don’t know if she is buried in Kilwinning or Ireland.

Here is another picture of Catherine Greenan Loughran as a young woman.

Here is a another picture of my Great Grandmother, Catherine Greenan Loughran (also pictured above). She lived in Kilwinning and had a really huge family with my Great Grandfather John Loughran. They were intertwined with the Gartland family, another local family around North Ayrshire. Her daughter Mary married my Grandfather Andrew McTaggart.

She was well known locally as a ballroom dancer, the Barrfield Pavilion, Largs, was one of her places. They used to chalk the heels of her shoes.

She died in Ireland in the late 1920s/1930s, where she spent a lot of her time with John’s family and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard, Dunnamore, nr Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, in an unmarked grave along with older members of John’s family. John was also taken back from Dalry and interred there when he died.

In this picture she is wearing the infamous sealskin coat which everyone fought over when she died. I believe it went to Anna Mariah Campbell, from Kilmarnock.

Catherine again in this one: Here she is feeding the chickens in Dunnamore, Tyrone Ireland

In this next picture she is wearing the infamous sealskin coat which everyone fought over when she died. I believe it went to Anna Mariah Campbell, from Kilmarnock.