In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Brodick like this:
Brodick, a bay, a village, an old castle, and a quoad sacra parish in Kilbride parish, Arran, Buteshire. The bay is in the middle of the E side of Arran; has a halfmoon form; measures 2½ miles across the entrance; and is flanked on the N by Merkland Point, on the S by Corriegill Point. ...
A fine smooth beach of sand and shingle, admirably adapted for bathing, lines its margin; a sweep of plain, sprinkled with little hamlets, rows of cottages, and pretty villas, spreads away from the beach; and this plain is backed by a semi-amphitheatre of mountains, cleft by the glens of Cloy, Shurig, and Rosie.-The village, on the SW side of the bay, 4 ½ miles N of Lamlash, and 14 WSW of Ardrossan, contains a number of neat residences, a spacious hotel, a small belfried church, and the Duke of Hamilton's school, which, with accommodation for 99 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 81, and a grant of £72,17s. 6d. A favourite summer resort of families from Glasgow, and even from the E of Scotland, it enjoys regular communication, by steam vessels, with Ardrossan and Greenock; and has a commodious iron steamboat pier erected in 1872, a post office, with money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph departments, under Ardrossan, a fair on the Tuesday after 20 June, a justice of peace small debt court on the first Monday of every month, and sheriff small debt courts four times a year.-The castle stands on a green terrace, amid a splendid park, on the N side of the bay; belongs to the Duke of Hamilton, the proprietor of most of Arran; is chiefly a modern structure, in the old Baronial style, with steep crow-stepped gables, battlemented roofs, flanking turrets, and a lofty central tower; and, together with its park, figures picturesquely and proudly on the seaboard. A fortalice on its site existed in the times of the Norse invaders and of the Lords of the Isles; a reconstruction or an extension of that fortalice was an object of contention in the wars of Bruce and Baliol; and some portion of the mediæval structure is retained in the walls of the present edifice. The quoad sacra parish is in the presbytery of Kintyre and synod of Argyll. Stipend, £120. Pop. of q. s. parish (1871) 1104, (1 881) 996; of registration district (1871) 928, (l881) 837.
Brodick through time
Brodick is now part of North Ayrshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how North Ayrshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Brodick itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Brodick, in North Ayrshire and Buteshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/20201
Date accessed: 20th April 2024
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