the overlords of the baillerie of Cunninghame. The mound was destroyed by construction of the earthworks of the expressway. "Maid Morville Avenue" still exists to commemorate the event. Locally the mound was known as "Marble Hill", a corruption of "Morville's Hill". There is also a "Marble Avenue" nearby. Railway Station Dreghorn Station, at the foot of Station Brae by the River Annick, provided access to rail services between Irvine and Kilmarnock. It closed in 1964 and the railway is now a public footpath and woodland. The Churches Excavations of the Neolithic site suggest ritualistic features, and early Christians including the Culdees often took over pagan religious sites for their churches. Saint Brendan influenced the area in the 6th century. It seems that relics of his fellow monk Barrintus were venerated at Dreghorn church, though this could date from a much later period. When Kilwinning Abbey was established around 1171, fourteen parishes including Dreghorn came under its control. One of the monks would have been given charge of Dreghorn parish and the church lands. Dreghorn and Springside Parish Church The Church of Scotland parish church at the top of Station Brae, dating from 1780, has an unusual octagonal plan. At one time, the church was known locally as the "Threepenny" after the 12-sided Threepence coin. Following the Scottish Reformation, maintenance of the small rectangular church, the manse and churchyard, as well as payment of the minister's stipend, was vested in local landowners, the Heritors of the Parish. After years of complaints over repairs, in February 1777 the minister, Mr Tod. petitioned the Presbytery in Irvine that "a visitation be made with assistance of skilled tradesmen that the church (in Dreghorn) be pulled down and a new one built" on the same site. The Presbytery agreed in March 1777, then in 1779 they petitioned the principal Heritor, and patron of the church, Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton, to "give in a plan of a New Kirk". The heritors agreed in March 1780 to commence building work on the basis of his plan, in the shape of an octagon: he may have seen similar churches during his recent years spent in Europe. Built as a school in 1774 the small building on the right of the entrance to the churchyard was in the 19th century used as a morthouse and a mortuary, with a room for each, later becoming the kirk session