... Beith was the occasional residence of St Inan, a confessor of some celebrity, whose principal place of abode was at Irvine. He flourished about 839. On the Cuff Hill there is a cleft in the rock, which is still called St Inan's Chair; and, at a short distance from it, a well of excellent water, called St Inan's Well. From the Callendar of Scots Saints, we find that the festival of this saint was celebrated on the 18th of August; and to this day there is a fair at Beith, held on the corresponding day, old style. Tradition still bears that this fair used to be held on the Cuff Hill. It was removed to Beith after the town had increased in population, and become a more suitable place for a market. It is one of the principal fairs in the county. The fair is vulgarly pronounced Tenant's Day; but this is evidently a corruption arising from the final letter of Saint, being sounded with the name Inan. Similar corruptions occur in Tantony, which is a corruption of St Antony; and Taudrey, which is a corruption of St Audrey. [...]
But the Cuff Hill has antiquities much earlier than the days of St Inan. On the north declivity of the hill, there is a rocking-stone of considerable size, which can be set in motion by the slightest touch. This stone is of common trap.
From the New Statistical Account for Ayr and Bute (1845).
Cuff Hill was hacked into for road material in the early 19th century. Burl quotes a local farmer who indignantly observed "These curious and interesting relics of antiquity, the mercenary and boorish labourers are breaking and undoing with the most unfeeling apathy."
(in 'Rites of the Gods' 1981 - no particular source mentioned?)
Rouken Glen (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) — Fieldnotes
NS55NW 5
Not a great site but included to fill in cup and ring mark distribution in the area.
Contains one possible cup and partial ring - very faint.
The nearby site on Deaconsbank Golf Course (NS55NW 8 at NS5458 5779) on the outcrop near the dovecot was also examined but the rock art could not be seen. (Found a golf ball though!)