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Maybole is Burns country. Four miles south at Kirkoswald Robert Burns spent the summer of 1775, his sixteenth, learning land surveying. There he met many of the people whom he turned into characters in his poem Tam O'Shanter, and Kirkoswald Churchyard contains their graves as well as those of Burns's schoolmaster and his mother's parents.
Activities and attractions
The earliest historical records of Maybole date from 1193, the Earl of Carrick gave it its charter. While the town became a burgh of regality in 1516, the Kennedys, the most influential family in Ayrshire, retained a tremendous sway over town affairs. Maybole Castle, home of the Kennedy earls of Cassillis, is a relic of the time when the town was Carrick district's capital. In Cassillis Street stands the parish church built in 1808. The bright orange stone is not the church's most unusual feature. High above is a square stepped spire unique in Scottish ecclesiastical architecture.
About 1240 Crossagruel Abbey was founded a few kilometres southwest of the town when the Earl of Carrick granted the lands to the Cluniacs of Paisley to support a daughter house. The ruins now present date from a fifteenth century building boom after the original buildings were destroyed in the wars of the 1300s. Crossagruel shares many of the common features of Scottish abbeys, with a church across the north side and a cloister to its south surrounded by lines of ancillary buildings. The arches of the apse still stand, but the most distinctive feature is a square tower house built around 1530 as the abbot's residence. Near Crossagruel stands the ruined tower of Baltersan Castle. The property is privately owned but plainly visible from the road.
Maybole Golf Course is hillier than many in the region, but its greens are kept in perfect condition. The view from the nine holes of Maypole features vistas over the Carrick Hills that are unmatched anywhere in the country. The facilities are not on a par with Royal Troon or Old Prestwick, but the greens fees are far lower at Maypole.
Culzean Castle is the structure depicted on the back of the Royal Bank of Scotland's five pound note. The L-shaped structure, built just before 1800, was deeded to the National Trust for Scotland in 1945--except for the topmost chamber, which was given to then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower in gratitude for his service in World War II. The gardens, the 13-acre swan pond and the Gas House with its museum are all open to the public, and guided tours of the house are available. The sea caves under the castle are said to have been the haunt of smugglers, or of fairies, or of a piper who wandered in never to be seen again. The caverns are only open to the public on rare occasions for guided tours.
Access and Places to Stay
The A77 passes through the middle of Maybole, causing considerable congestion at peak periods. The town also has a rail station and frequent buses to Glasgow and to Prestwick Airport. Lodging is plentiful at all levels from B&B and self-catering accommodation to the most luxurious country house guest rooms. Maybole offers a variety of fine eateries offering food from a broad range of cuisines, and atmospheric pubs enough to offer after dark entertainment for the most discerning traveller.
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