Irvine is a city in and county seat of Estill County, Kentucky, United States. Its population was 2,843 at the 2000 census. It is located on the Kentucky River at the junction of Kentucky Route 52 and Kentucky Route 89. It was built on land once granted to Green Clay. It was founded on January 28, 1812 and named for William Irvine, an early settler and Indian fighter. The town did not incorporate until 1849, and was ransacked on October 13, 1864 by Confederate guerrillas, who burned the jail. The town remained small until the 1870s, when its population passed 300. Construction of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad's North Fork through town, as well as a coal boom around the turn of the century, greatly increased the local population. Irvine annually hosts the Mountain Mushroom Festival on the last weekend of April. Irvine, along with the nearby city of Ravenna, are known as the "Twin Cities".