Dreghorn is a village in North Ayrshire, Scotland, east of Irvine town centre, on the old main road from Irvine to Kilmarnock. It is sited on a ridge between two rivers. As archaeological excavations near the village centre have found a significant neolithic settlement provisionally dated to around 3500 BC, as well as medieval structures, scholars have suggested that Dreghorn could be Britain's oldest continuously inhabited village. Both Irvine and Dreghorn have grown in size and they are now separated by the Annick Valley Park, which incorporates a footpath and National Cycle Route 73 on the route of the disused Irvine to Busby railway line. It had an estimated population of in .
The Church of Scotland Dreghorn and Springside Parish Church, at the centre of the village, dates from 1780. Its octagonal plan, which is unusual in Scotland, was produced by the church's principal benefactor, Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton. The village's most famous inhabitant, John Boyd Dunlop, was born at a Dreghorn farm in 1840. When practicing as a veterinary surgeon in Belfast, in 1887 he invented pneumatic tyres for bicycles.
Location
Dreghorn lies on a ridge between Annick Water, to its immediate north, and the River Irvine further south. The old main road from Irvine to Kilmarnock (now the B7081) formed the original village street along the ridge. As Townfoot, it rises to the high point of the ridge at the Parish Church in the centre of the village, then continues as Main Street east along the ridge, down to the nearby village of Springside which is also in Dreghorn Parish.
The Annick Water runs close to the north of the village, along the edge of the Annick Valley Park. Woodland and open green spaces, including playing fields, separate Dreghorn from Irvine New Town, with the district of Broomlands adjoining the park. The disused Irvine to Busby railway line, which runs along this park, has been converted to a footpath, and forms National Cycle Route 73 as part of the Irvine New Town Trail.
At a crossroads immediately to the east of the church, Station Brae runs north down the hill to the former Dreghorn railway station, and the B730 runs south towards Drybridge, crossing the River Irvine at Holmsford Bridge. Here it crosses under the A71 road, which runs as a modern bypass along the Irvine Valley to the south of the village. A link from the B730 joins the A71 at a roundabout at Corsehill, providing expressway access from Dreghorn to Irvine town centre, and eastwards to Kilmarnock.
History
Dreghorn was the site of a significant neolithic settlement, and subsequently a medieval village: archaeological evidence has been provisionally dated to around 3500 BC, suggesting that Dreghorn could be Britain's oldest continuously inhabited village. In advance of a development of new housing to the north of properties on the current Main Street, preliminary testing found features including an ancient well.
The excavations were carried out between November 2003 and April 2004 at a site on the slope from the ridge down towards Annick Water. The housing development has since been completed, as Station Brae Gardens. Neolithic features included pits and post holes with remains including fragments of some Early Neolithic carinated bowls and larger amounts of Late Neolithic Grooved ware. Stone items were made from local and imported materials including flint, Arran pitchstone and chert, and included scrapers, arrowheads and cutting tools.
Three parallel rows of post holes indicated a rectangular structure measuring , probably a timber hall similar to the Neolithic long house found at Balbridie. Smaller post holes and stake holes define eight to twelve round or oval structures, possibly round houses, as well as six gully-defined structures with numerous stake-holes. A large oval feature, measuring approximately , contained heavily retired pottery shards and is thought likely to have been a kiln. Possible ritualistic landscape features include a massive post-pit and post holes or pits forming arcs. At the west edge of the site, adjacent to Station Brae, part of a probable palisade was found. Medieval finds included a trackway, ditches, pits and remains of numerous structures including kilns and a wattle and daub walled granary.
John Boyd Dunlop was born at a Dreghorn farm on 5 February 1840. He qualified as a veterinary surgeon at the Dick Vet in Edinburgh and set up practice in Belfast, where he also invented a pneumatic tyres for bicycles in October 1887. The principle had been patented by Robert William Thomson in 1847, but it was Dunlop's invention that made a success of the idea.