The River Irvine meanders to the sea through southern parts of the town and passes the centre in a south-east to north-west direction.. The Old Parish Church stands on a low hill on the north-east bank of the river between two streets leaving the south side of Irvine High Street, viz., the Kirkgate and Kirk Vennel.  The Parish Church erected in 1803 is an imposing rectangular building with a handsome spire. Since it covered a much larger area of ground than an earlier cruciform shaped church on the same site, many early grave lairs had to be disturbed. The remains were reinterred under the passages of the new building. However, in 1866 when a new heating system was being put in place, pipe trenches were dug out in those passages, and the remains were again disturbed and reinterred in the south-east corner of the graveyard. There are several memorials within the church, both on the walls and in stain glass windows, to persons of importance to the town. The graveyard surrounds the church on all sides and runs down to the river bank from which it is separated by a low stone wall. On its other sides the walls are higher, and those on the north and south have large memorials with protruding tops built into them. There are almost 1500 memorial stones arranged in neat rows, and shaped as obelisks, statues, tables and undraped urns. There are relatively few plain headstones. Many are carvel from sandstone and the inscriptions on a surprising few are now illegible. The graveyard is well kept with short grass and neat paths. However, no flowers were to be seen at the time of my visit. There is a south-east extension to this graveyard, which also adjoins the river bank. The south wall of the main graveyard has been lowered at some time to make the extension seem less separate. It contains a further 337 stones, and access to it is best gained from Kirk Vennel. It was gratifying to note that in spite of the close proximity of the town centre, and the fact that although the graveyard and its extension were closely surrounded by housing, there was no obvious evidence of vandalism on the headstones. (From http://www.ayrshireroots.co.uk)