Crosraguel Abbey

Captain Francis Grose was one of the first systematic recorders of architectural and archaeological remains in Britain. His six volume Antiquities of England and Wales published between 1773 and 1787, was followed by Antiquities of Scotland in two volumes published in 1789 and 1791. Robert Burns met him while he was undertaking the latter, and became a friend – writing three pieces about him including On Captain Grose’s Peregrinations through Scotland. "Crosraguel, Croceregal, or Cosragmol abbey stands in Carrick, one of the subdivisions of the Shire of Ayr, and in the parish of Kirkoswald, two miles from Maybole. This was a Cluniac abbey founded by Duncan, son of Gilbert, Earl of Carrick, in the year 1244, as we are informed by the Chartulary of Paisley. There is a charter of King Robert Bruce to this place, which he therein calls Croceragmer de terra de Dungrelach, given at Berwick the eighteenth year of his reign, and also confirmation of all the churches and lands granted to it by Duncan Neil (Nigellus), Robert his father, and Edward Bruce his brother, Earls of Carrick, dated at Cambus-kenneth, the 20th of June, and the twenty-first year of his reign. The last abbot of this place was Quintin Kennedy, brother to the Earl of Cassils."