Publication Account

Date 1981

Event ID 1018004

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018004

The earliest parish church of Kilmarnock was the Low, or Laigh Kirk which was possibly erected by the thirteenth century and was a daughter church of Kilwinning Abbey (Schofield, 1976, 1). It is possible that masonry from the earlier fifteenth century survives in the present fabric, which was erected in 1801 (Smellie, 1898, x). In that year the Laigh Kirk was rebuilt following a calamity when, under the impression that the church was falling in, the congregation made a rush for the door and thirty people were crushed to death (Smellie, 1898, x). About the early 1730s, the Laigh Church had been found to be insufficient for the expanding population in the town. To supply the deficiency, the High Church at the head of Soulis Street was then erected. The Laigh Kirk minister however, supplied the pulpit and even after 1764, when the High Church gained its own minister, church affairs were still largely in the control of the Laigh Kirk Session (Schofield, 1976, 13).

Information from ‘Historic Kilmarnock: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1981).