Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“by Alloway's auld haunted kirk” and stumbles across a riotous witches' dance. All that
remains inside are a pair of iron mortsafes. he Kirk is also where Robert's father,
William, and his sister, Isabella Burns Begg, are buried. His father's grave is
prominently located at the entrance to the church; the mournful epitaph on the back
of the headstone was penned by Burns.
Burns Cottage
Greenfield Avenue • Daily: April-Sept 10am-5.30pm; Oct-March 10am-5pm • £8 (including entrance to Burns Museum); NTS •
T
0844
493 2601,
W
burnsmuseum.org.uk
Standing opposite the village post o
ce is the
Burns Cottage
, birthplace of the poet
and his home for the first seven years of his life. Built by his father, William, the low,
whitewashed, thatched cottage was where animals and people lived under the same
roof, with a separate section for grain storage - something that was quite modern in its
day. Much altered over the years, there's not an awful lot to see inside, but you can
nevertheless gain an impression of what the place must have been like when Burns, the
first of seven children, was born in the box-bed in the only room in the house.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
ALLOWAY
By bus
From Ayr bus station, bus #58 drops off in the
centre of the village. Alternatively bus #361 (hourly)
departs from Carrick Street in Ayr and drops off at
Burns Cottage.
Dumfries House
Outside Cumnock, 14 miles east of Ayr off the A70 • March-Oct daily 11am-4pm; Nov-Feb Sat & Sun 11am-4pm ; pre-booked guided
tours only • £8.50 •
T
01290 425959,
W
dumfries-house.org.uk • From Glasgow take bus #X77 or X76 from Buchanan Street bus station;
from Ayr bus #46
A handsome Palladian villa,
Dumfries House
was commissioned by the fifth earl of
Dumfries, a widower who wanted to remarry and ensure that he had an heir for the
family estate. he house, the major early commission for the Adam brothers, was
conceived as a honey trap to lure a potential wife, and, judging by the portrait of the
ageing, gouty earl in the Pink Drawing Room, he needed all the help he could get. Such
was the earl's urgency the house was built and decked out relatively swiftly - between
1756 and 1760 - meaning its Rococo decorative scheme is in perfect harmony with the
graceful sandstone exterior. Chief amongst the treasures is a huge collection of
Chippendale furniture
, some ordered direct from homas himself, and some created
from his “Director” (book of designs) and augmented by local craftsmen with Scottish
saltires. hroughout the house, the family symbols of the wyvern (small dragon) and the
thistle recur in inventive and playful touches, and exotic Oriental motifs crop up in the
fanciful Adam plasterwork ceilings, tapestry fire screens and gilded pier glasses.
he earl secured a wife but died without producing an heir; the family subsequently
turned their attention to creating
Mount Stuart
(see p.230), leaving Dumfries House to
be looked after by a series of housekeepers. he recent story of the house is as
remarkable as its past: the building and its contents were all up for sale in 2007, and
some of the furniture had begun its journey south to Christie's when Prince Charles
and a hastily assembled trust intervened to make a heritage “save”.
4
Crossraguel Abbey
A77, 2 miles south of Maybole • April-Sept daily 9.30am-5.30pm • £4.50; HS •
T
01655 883113
Two miles south of Maybole, right by the A77, lie the substantial remains of
Crossraguel Abbey
, a lovely antidote to the hordes that pile into Culzean. A Cluniac
monastery - one of only two in Scotland - it was founded in 1250, though most of
what you see here dates from the late fourteenth century following extensive damage
during the wars with England.
