Kilwinning 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. This is a plate from Antiquities of Scotland showing Kilwinning Abbey.   Grose wrote: "This abbey is situated in the Bailiwick of Cunningham, one of the three districts or subdivisions of the Shire of Ayr, about three miles North of the Royal Burgh of Irving, near the Irish sea.  It was founded in the year 1140, by Hugh Morville, Constable of Scotland, for monks of the Tyronesian order, brought from Kelso; it was dedicated to St. Winning."