Brodick 

Old Brodick was situated on the north side of the bay. Goods, passengers, livestock and mail came in at the old quay there or at the mouth of the burns. The Old Inn at Cladoch would accommodate the visitors arriving at the quay. This was a two storied building and after the castle it was the first building on the island to have a slated roof. When the Jamieson family were the tenants there goats milk was advertised for sale and  visitors would come to drink it for their health. Almost opposite the Home Farm stands a cottage. This was the Village Inn which served the folk of Old Brodick. The village consisted of a row of cottages known as 'the street' which joined the Inn to the only two houses now remaining up the lane.

About 1853 the deer park and Castle policies were developed and the new drive taken across the fields as it is today. Tenants were rehoused.

The original school was at Rosa-burn and the education was of a very high standard which continued when the new school was built in 1854 by the 11th Duke of Hamilton.

Douglas Place and Alma Terrace were erected to house families transferred from Old Brodick. Glen Cloy held its steading and community of workers. Some of these cottages still stand, and it was here that Mrs William Gray ran a Post Office and grocery business in 1870, where a Post runner and spring cart took the mail to Corrie, another took those for Shiskine. Locals collected there own. Below on the shore, hulls of old vessels could be seen until quite recently. These were reputed to have been used as dwellings and living below the waterline meant paying no rent. Invercloy was a group of cottages and houses along the shore road and into a Close behind it. A smiddy stood where the present Post Office stands.

The 'Brodick' originally a packet boat, was the last sailing schooner to carry mail from Ardrossan to Brodick in the 1830s.

The railway companies had there own vessels which competed to reach Brodick Pier first. 80 minutes from Glasgow to Brodick !

In 1891 a private telephone line linked Brodick castle with Dougarie Lodge. In 1894 the Village Hall was opened. The ironwork pier was built in 1872 and the Douglas Hotel was expanded to accommodate the increase in visitors to the island. Motor buses started to appear after the Great War after most of the island horses had been shipped of the island to help with the war efforts.

The old graveyard by the side of the turning to Glen Rosa stands as a reminder that here was the Village Church of Brodick, a quod Sacra church, being part of the Parish of Kilbride, built in 1839 at a cost of £850. The church was closed in 1930-31. The saw-pit which had been used as a place of worship by the Free Church people was replaced by the building of a new church at the end of Brodick on the rise to Corriegills in 1847-48.

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