first tubercular-free cattle in Ayrshire. The house was let to a number of tenants, the Henderson family of the Anchor Line being the most notable. In 1933 the house was sold to Ayrshire County Council as a home for “mentally defective” (language used at the time) children. The Clerkland Burn rivulet runs past the Dunlop House mansion, forming the boundary between the parishes of Stewarton and Dunlop. The Brechna Braes and Brackenheugh The Brechna Braes area lies close to Dunlop and has been developed as the Templehouse Community Woodland to celebrate the 2000 Millennium. The Brackenheugh is a wooded slope overlooking Aiket Castle. It is said to be the site of the death of one of the Cunninghames of Aiket, killed by a Montgomerie during the times of the feuds between these families. Dunlop Church In 1516 John Major or Mair, said to be the instructor of John Knox held the post of vicar, mostly absentee as he was a professor of theology. By 1566 the vicar was John Houston, who held the manse, garden and an acre of land adjoining the manse. The rest of the Kirkland-Dunlop lands passed from the Abbots of Kilwinning to William Cunninghame of Aiket and remained with the Cunninghames until the latter half of the 17th century. The Earl of Eglinton held the right of patronage when it was abolished in 1875. The church (NS 40474 49414) was probably built in around 1766, however by 1834 it was dilapidated and demolition followed, resulting in the construction of the Dunlop parish church, opened in December 1835, that we see today. This took place under the ministry of Mathew Dickie, who left to join the Free Church at Beith in 1843. Parts of the original building are in use as tomb stones. Barbara Gilmour, famous for introducing the production of Dunlop cheese, is buried in the churchyard. Major McAlester of Kennox, then a heritor, obtained the 1792 bell and Miss McAlester and Charles G. S. McAlester returned it to the Kirk Session in 1935 to honour the centenary of the present church. The Rev William Gebbie was the last minister to come into the parish under the old system of patronage, in this case that of the Earl of Eglinton. William was a fervent evangelist and the 'Dunlop Revival' shook the whole parish until the reverend was charged with heresy in the early 1860s. He remained