1904-1905-] Largs and its Surroundings. 215 



Larges." It was not, however, till long afterwards tliat a 

 stone bridge was successfully carried from one side of the 

 Gogo across to the other. 



It is by no means improbable that the earliest Christian 

 place of worship at Largs may have been founded by St 

 Columba, the patron saint of the town, in the course of his 

 frequent missionary journeyings on the west coast of Scot- 

 land. A church seems to have existed at Largs during 

 the reign of David I., and is occasionally referred to in 

 documents from the thirteenth century onwards. At the 

 period of the Reformation the rectory and vicarage of Largs, 

 which then belonged to the Abbey of Paisley, were valued 

 at £40. The ancient edifice was taken down in 1812, but 

 a fragment of the south wall contained a monument to the 

 Boyles of Kelburue, and was on that account allowed to 

 stand. The building was of unknown age and of great 

 strength, the portion remaining being about four feet in 

 thickness, and of the most compact solidity. It is there- 

 fore not improbable, as has been suggested, that the de- 

 molished edifice may, in whole or in part, have formed the 

 original church of Largs.^ 



With the exception of its somewhat quaint gateways, and 

 a few tombstones bearing metrical epitaphs, mostly of a 

 gloomily didactic type, the churchyard itself is not marked 

 by any features of special interest. It is to the structure 

 known as the " Skelmorlie Aisle " that the attention of 

 visitors is mainly directed. The aisle was formerly attached 

 to the north wall of the old parish church, and has been 

 preserved intact. It was erected in 1636 by Sir Eobert 

 Montgomerie of Skelmorlie, to contain the burial-place and 

 monument of himself and his wife, Dame Margaret Douglas, 

 daughter of Sir William Douglas of Drumlanrig, ancestor 

 of the Marquesses of Queensberry. Sir Eobert's name is 

 associated with the great feud which was long carried on 

 between the families of Montgomerie and Cuninghame, at 

 a period when that deplorable quarrel had assumed one of 

 its most sanguinary phases. On 13th April 1586, Hew, 

 fourth Earl of Eglintoun, was murdered near Stewarton by 



^ J. Sbedden Dobie : 'The Church of Largs.' Archaeological and Historical 

 Collections relating to Ayrshire and Galloway, vi. (1889), 55. 



