Civil parishes within Wigtownshire from c. 1650 onwards (not including Stranraer)
This page collects information about people with surname Adair
who were known or believed to have lived in Wigtownshire.
Notable Individuals
Patrick Cathcart Adair (1625-1694) was Episcopalian until a religious revolution caused him to change to one of the founding fathers of the Presbyterian Church. Much is written of him in the records of the Presbyterian Church. He was an Irish Presbyterian minister, notable for his part in negotiations with government for religious liberty and settlement through his career. His service covered some 28 years at Cairncastle, County Antrim before he was removed to Belfast where he led the church there for another 20 years to his death.
Dunskey Castle is a ruined, 12th-century tower house or castle, located 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of the village of Portpatrick, Rhinns, Wigtownshire, on the south-west coast of Scotland overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. On a clear day, the coast of Ireland is visible 21 miles away. Dunskey Castle is a scheduled monument, a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The castle was home to the Adair family for over 300 years, with a brief period when it fell into the hands of the Kennedy family in 1455. The original fortification was plundered and then destroyed in 1489 by Sir Alexander McCulloch. The tower house was then rebuilt in 1510 by Ninian Adair which is when it took on its L-shaped tower house layout. This version of the castle would have had a curtain wall and a watch tower out on the cliff edge.
Kilhilt was the name of the Adair Family castle / manor home that stood in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in the village of Portpatrick, County of Wigtownshire, Scotland. Nothing remains of the site today. Portpatrick sits on the southwest cost of Scotland and on a clear day you can see Ireland only 21 miles west. In the 17th century, much of the Adair Family moved to County Antrim in Ireland as part of the Ulster Plantation.
The Castle of St John, also known as Stranraer Castle, is an early 16th-century L-plan tower house in the centre of Stranraer, in Dumfries and Galloway (Wigtownshire), southwest Scotland. It was built by the Adairs of Kilhilt (who originally came from Ireland) c.1510. It has been used as a home, a court, a police station and as a military garrison during the "Killing Times" of Covenanter persecution in the 1680s. During the Victorian era, the castle was modified to serve as a prison, and it was used as an ARP base during the Second World War. The castle was refurbished in the late 1980s and is now a museum.
Genoch House
Genoch House was an 18th century mansion which incorporated part of an earlier building (the Adair home). A tower named Mekle Ganoch is marked on Blaeu’s mid-17th century map of Galloway. In June 1784 Robert Cathcart of Genoch and Knockdolian wrote to Dr William Cullen complaining of “a swelling in my Leggs”. Genoch House was demolished some time after 1962.
:Note, for the following tables, that there may be more than one county or district of this name and that some contributors may have entered a different (possibly shorter and/or ambiguous) name when this one was meant. Search for similar names to get a more complete result. Common abbreviations are "Co." and "Cty", but there may have been no word for "county" (or equivalent) included, or such a word may have been wrongly included.
Familypedia people with surname Adair in Wigtownshire
