From at least the middle eighteenth century a parish school stood beside Kirkmaiden Church. The walls of the small building still stand, fronted on the east by the gravestones of two early schoolmasters. The first bears a much-worn Latin inscription, the other, that of William Todd and his family, begins with a quotation in Greek from the New Testament.

The prosperity of the lairds gradually increased after the Reformation. Some began to think of ways to increase it still further. In the late seventeenth century Patrick McDouall of Logan began attempts, which continued into the nineteenth century, to establish a ferry-port for Ireland at Port Nessock, later renamed Port Logan.

In the 1843 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 451 ministers, led by Thomas Chalmers, separated themselves from the main body to become the Free Church of Scotland. They were expelled from their churches, but with the support of many members of their congregations they were able to form rival Free Churches in their former parishes.

Military activities dominated the first half of the century. During the First World War (1914-18) German U-boats were active in the North Channel and Luce Bay. The graves of sailors drowned in the sinking of the Main in 1917 and the Rio Verde in 1918 are to be seen in Kirkmaiden kirkyard.