Saint Winning

Little is known about the man who gave his name to the town of Kilwinning. St Winning (also known as Finnan) was a Christian missionary from Ireland who came to Scotland at the end of the 7th century. He travelled through the west of Scotland, converting the locals to Christianity and establishing churches for worship. Nothing survives of his small church at Kilwinning, but it was almost certainly on the same site as the later Tironensian monastery, built in the late 12th century and dedicated to St Winning and the Virgin Mary.