Kilmarnock FC

Kilmarnock. Damp air, heavy skies, long winters – and fantastic poetry. And, it would seem, squirrels. Not sure about the squirrels. Let’s go about twenty miles South-West of Glasgow to visit this town of around 50,000 souls and #GetTheBadgeIn to see what we can learn about them, their football team and those squirrels.

On the pitch the team dates back to 1869 making them one of the oldest teams in Scotland and the oldest team currently in the SPL. They date back to the days when football hadn’t even been codified and everyone played it slightly differently, the Kilmarnock version initially looked very much like rugby league. Popularity grew and with it the desire to actually play other teams – the problem being everyone else was playing by different rules. A meeting at the George Hotel (which is today, sadly, a furniture store – see image) saw the team’s committee agree to purchase a rulebook for the traditional form of football and reform the team to compete nationally. Today they still play at the aptly named ‘Rugby Park’ – which, as a interesting side note – was taken over by the military in the Second World War and used as a fuel depot – and was then rebuilt as a stadium using Italian prisoners of war.

Not everyone can sing that.

But since their creation back in the George Hotel they’ve been busy: Kilmarnock have won the Scottish Cup three times, been crowned league champions once in 1965, lifted the Scottish League Cup in 2012, and have regularly appeared in international competitions, including a bizarre appearance in the short-lived, US-based, ‘International Soccer League’. There they beat all their American rivals as well as defeating Bayern Munich and, the then English Champions, Burnley. They only lost in the final to Brazil’s Bangu. More recently they have been a long serving SPL team. Suffering relegation in 2021 but followed it by an immediate Championship title in 2022 and a return to the top tier.

So that’s the club. From an East Ayrshire rugby field to American soccer success… but what then of the badge – and those bloody squirrels?

Let’s dive deeper. The story starts with the name. Kilmarnock begins with cill, the Gaelic word for a church or burial ground. The second part of the name is generally linked to Saint Marnock (also recorded as Mernoc, Marnan, or Mo-Ernóc). Marnock was one of the Christians that brought the religion to Scotland. In AD 563 a bunch of Christian monks led by Saint Columba, set up camp on the Scottish island of Iona and built a monastery (see below). Using this as a sort of Forward Operating Base for their efforts to convert the locals on the mainland. Parties of missionaries sailed up and down the Scottish rivers and inlets setting up franchises where they could (and presumably running in terror from the heathen locals where they couldn’t…?). Marnock was one of those guys, and where he built his church (or ‘cill’) became known, today, as Church Marnock. Or Kilmarnock. Initially I assumed that cill came from Kirk – as in a Scottish Church – but apparently that is Norse in origin – not Gaelic. So, there you go. Cill it is.

To tell the next chapter in this town’s history we need to ask the Boyd family to lend us a hand. Aha… the hand in the badge is associated with the Boyd family who were for centuries the Lords of Kilmarnock.

The Boyd family first rose to prominence during the Battle of Largs in 1263, when Robert Boyd was tasked with clearing Viking forces from high ground overlooking the beach. As he set off, King Alexander III is said to have called out “Confido” (“I trust”), accompanied by a hand gesture that later became the Boyd clan motto and symbol. Boyd’s successful attack helped force a Norse retreat and contributed to the Viking defeat.

In the following decades, the Boyds became closely involved in the Wars of Scottish Independence. They fought alongside figures such as William Wallace, with Duncan Boyd executed in 1306 for supporting the Scottish cause. A later Sir Robert Boyd, likely the grandson of the Largs commander, emerged as a trusted supporter of Robert the Bruce and played a key role at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 (where they thrashed the English army and sent Edward II packing). For his service, he was rewarded with lands, including Kilmarnock, firmly establishing the Boyds as major landholders in Ayrshire and laying the foundations for their long-term influence in the town.

So, finally… what of the squirrels? Well. I’m afraid the story may be a slight anti-climax. The use of squirrels on the Boyd family crest first appeared in 1460 by Lord Robert Boyd. He was quite the character and has been called by one historian “an unscrupulous political gambler and an inveterate optimist”, which is quite the obituary. At various points he essentially kidnapped the young James III of Scotland and tried to arrange the marriage of his daughter into the Royal line – and in another negotiated the addition of the Orkney Islands into Scottish possession and away from Norway. And in amongst all of that he issued a new family crest which incorporated squirrels. The guy was clearly nuts.

Nuts or not, his legacy continues to do this day with the squirrels going from his family crest, to the coat of arms for Kilmarnock – and then to the football team’s badge.

The Boyd’s family seat at Dean Castle dominated the area for centuries, and in 1592 a Thomas Boyd secured Burgh of Barony status for Kilmarnock. That technical and legal shift allowed the town to hold markets, regulate trade, and function as a town rather than a loose settlement.

By the 18th century, Kilmarnock had become an industrial centre, known for textiles, carpets, engineering, and printing. That printing industry is the reason that Kilmarnock’s most famous resident, Robert Burns, published his first volume of poems there in 1786.

This book brought his work to national attention and helped establish him as the voice of ordinary Scottish people, writing in Scots about love, work, hardship, and pride in Scotland. Burns later became a symbol of Scottish culture and values, celebrated every year on Burns Night (25 January), when people across Scotland and around the world gather to eat haggis, recite his poetry, and celebrate Scottish language, music, and traditions.

As if that wasn’t enough, Kilmarnock can lay claim to a second fundamental pillar of Scottishness – a man called John Walker. In the early 19th century he ran a small grocery store in the town centre and started, as a bit of a sideline, making blended whiskies to sell to his customers. After his death his son, Alex, took over the family business and expanded on the whisky side – becoming the Whisky giant Johnnie Walker which today sell more Scottish Whisky than anyone else.

Kilmarnock then – An early Christian outpost, home to a family of (most of the time) patriots who fought the English at Bannockburn, a somewhat eccentric son who brought the Orkney isles into the Scottish fold, the most famous Scottish poet in history – and the nations’ biggest whisky brand.

Not bad for a town of 50,000.

Their football team takes that legacy and heritage into battle at Rugby Park every other Saturday, looking to add yet more trophies to the town’s incredible record.