North Ayrshire Library and Information Service - local and Scottish collections

The North Ayrshire Library and Information Service website, validated to CSS.2.1, XHTML1.0 and AA.

Local and family history - local and Scottish collections

Books

The library has an extensive collection of books, old and new, pertaining to Scottish history and the history of Ayrshire. All subjects, from Archaeology to Zoology are covered.

Our most-used titles include:

"Cunninghame 1604-1608" by Timothy Pont
The Statistical Accounts for Ayrshire 1791, 1840, 1951.
"The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire" by Michael Davis. 1991.
"A Genealogical Account of the Principal families of Ayrshire, more particularly Cunninghame" by George Robertson. 1823.

Directories

We also hold Ayrshire Directories for the following years: 1837, 1851-52, 1887, 1908-09, 1935-37, 1973, and Ayrshire Lists of Voters for: 1854, 1857, 1859, 1868, and 1879-80

Old maps Maps

Our oldest maps are:

Timothy Pont's Cunningham, dated 1630
Roy's Military maps of 1750
Armstrong's maps of Ayrshire, 1775
Robert Aitken's series of parish maps for North Ayrshire, 1827

We have a complete set of the 1910 Ordnance Survey for the whole of Ayrshire, scale 6 inch and 25 inch.

We also have a number of 25 inch for North Ayrshire published throughout the 1960s.

Postcards and Photographs

Over the years we have been trying to build up our photographic collection, and are always on the lookout for more. It includes old postcards of local streets, family album portraits, pictures of groups of employees at their workplace, old buildings, local parades, etc.

View a sample of our collection here.

Special Collections

Alexander Wood Memorial Library

This remarkable collection was bequeathed to the people of Ardrossan in 1914 and consists of approximately 4,000 volumes relating to Ayrshire or written by Ayrshire people, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a full catalogue available

The Cunninghames of Auchenharvie Estate Papers

The Cunninghame family was a major landowner in Stevenston and pioneered the coal mining industry in North Ayrshire. This is a fascinating collection of mainly business papers, dating form the 16th century. There is a full catalogue available.

Back to main Local and family history page