Our easy-to-use website contains details and locations of places to visit around this area. Please select from:

	Places to Stay: Bed and Breakfast Hotels and Guest Houses Pubs with Accommodation Self Catering
	Places to Eat and Drink: Cafes, Coffee & Tea Shops Pubs serving Food Restaurants and Bistros
	Places of Interest: Places to Visit
	Gardens Centres: Garden Centres/Nurseries
	Specialist Shops: Antiques & Restoration Arts and Crafts Fashions Gifts Home and Garden Jewellery Food and Drink Shops

Crossraguel Abbey

The romantic ruins of Crossraguel Abbey (Historic Scotland) sit complacently beside the main Ayr-Stranraer road. They are very well preserved, and give a wonderful idea of the layout of a medieval abbey. Some of the architecture and stone carving, such as that in the chapter house, is well worth seeking out. Duncan, Earl of Carrick, founded it in 1244 for Clunaic monks from Paisley Abbey, though most of what you see nowadays dates from after the 13th century. The name is supposed to come from an old cross which stood here before the abbey was built, and it may mean the regal, or royal cross, or the cross of Riaghail, possibly a local chief.

 To the north are the ruins of Baltersan Castle, an old fortified 16th century tower house built either for John Kennedy of Pennyglen and his wife Margaret Cathcart or as the residence of Quentin Kennedy, the Abbot of Crossraguel from 1548 until 1564.