page_title: Dreghorn
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dreghorn / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A memorial plaque to John Boyd Dunlop at Dreghorn in North Ayrshire.
context_page_description: Dreghorn is a village in North Ayrshire, Scotland, 3.5 kilometres to the 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 3500BC, 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.
  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.
context_section_description: Dreghorn was the site of a significant neolithic settlement, and subsequently a medieval village: archaeological evidence has been provisionally dated to around 3500BC, 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 23.5 metres (77 ft) by 5 metres (16 ft), 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, approximately 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) by 1.2 metres (3.9 ft), 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 4 metres (13 ft) diameter 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.
caption: A memorial plaque to John Boyd Dunlop at Dreghorn village hall.
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