Cholera pit

[8] At Barrmill in North Ayrshire the tradition is that the disease was passed on from a group of gypsies camped on Whin Hill that local boys had gone out to meet.

Troops were regularly placed to prevent entry or exit during cholera outbreaks and normal burial in Beith was impossible and impractical, given the number of deaths.

[2] In 1834 cholera broke out in Beith and although 'clothes were burned, bedding fumigated, stairs and closes whitewashed, a nurse who was a veteran of the Dalry outbreak was engaged and a ban placed on entertainments at funerals.'

Tradition has it that "A prediction was uttered many long ages ago, that Cleaves [sic], on three successive occasions, would be the first place in the parish visited by the pestilence.

"[1] The construction of the proposed rail link to Glasgow Airport involved disturbance of the Paisley cholera pit; however, the project was cancelled.