By Road
Leave Kilwinning on the A737 and turn on to the A78 (Southbound). Follow to the junction with the A79 – turn right on to the A79. Go through Prestwick to Wallacetown. Turn right and then left to cross the River Ayr into Ayr itself.
Leave Ayr on the B7024, going past Burns cottage. Continue on this road to Maybole, with its Collegiate church. From Maybole take the A77 past Crossraguel Abbey.

By Cycle

Stay on NCN 7 to Maybole, and then, as you approach the railway, turn left instead of right, then right to cross the B7024 and A77 to reach the Collegiate church.

A 2 mile detour along the A77 takes you to Crossraguel Abbey.

By Foot

Walkers can continue to use The Ayrshire Coastal path.

By Public Transport

There are railway stations at Kilwinning, Ayr, Maybole and intermediate towns, as well as bus routes.

Crossraguel Abbey is not served by public transport. It is about a 30 minute walk from Maybole, or use a taxi – e.g Hunter taxis (01655 882320)

To check times go to Traveline Scotland and click on Plan your Journey on left side of page.

Through central Ayrshire you come by Prestwick to the county town and port of Ayr itself. The many churches here represent both the history and also the culture that shaped Robert Burns who is much in evidence. By way of his birthplace at Alloway, you continue close to the coast through beautiful countryside and historic villages to Maybole.

Then let us pray that come it may……
It’s comin yet for a’ that
That man to man the warld o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that.

Burns is a product of the enlightened, liberal Protetsantism espoused by his father, but opposed by presbyterian traditionalists of the kind satirized in ‘Holy Willie’s Paryer’. At the same time, nurtured from his mother’s knee by the folksongs and stories of Ayrshire, Burns sows the seeds of the Romantic movement. All of his work is infused with religious and moral principles, that spill over into Burn’s radical politics.

Just south of Maybole are the impressive ruins of Crossraguel Abbey, a Cluniac monastery and important centre of Ayshire’s culture in medieval times. The history here is marred by religious and clan conflict, not least the notorious torture of the last Abbot by the Earl of Casillis determined to seize the Abbey’s lands. But these former conflicts cannot outweigh the dignity of these well interpreted remains. They tell a story of pilgrimage in former times and remind us of old traditions now renewed.

Then let us pray that come it may
As come it will for a’ that,
That sense and worth o’er a’ the earth
May bear the gree for a’ that
For a’ that an a’ that
Its comin yet for a’ that
That man to man the warld o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that.