Tour Scotland Video Of Old Photographs Of Mauchline East Ayrshire

Tour Scotland travel Blog video of old photographs of Mauchline, East Ayrshire, Scotland. Mauchline, Scottish Gaelic: Maghlinn, is a town and civil parish in East Ayrshire. This town is where Jean Armour and Robert Burns lived in 1788. Born in Mauchline, Ayrshire in 1765, Jean Armour was second oldest of the eleven children of stonemason James Armour and Mary Smith Armour. She met Robert Burns on a drying green in Mauchline around 1784 when she chased his dog away from her laundry. According to Armour's testimony in 1827, she met Burns again at a local dance and they subsequently " fell acquainted ". Her marriage to Robert Burns was registered on 5 August 1788 in Mauchline, the parish records describe them as having been " irregularly married some years ago. " Jean Armour and Robert Burns had nine children together, he had at least another four by other women, the last of whom was born on the day of his funeral in July 1796. Nancy and Geordie Gibson, were host and hostess, of Poosie Nansie's Inn in Mauchline and were made famous by the poet Robert Burns. Behind the Inn, The Jolly Beggars Howff held a motley crew of beggars, rogues and vagabonds, a scene witnessed by Burns and his companions, James Smith and John Richmond. It was from the happening in this establishment that Burns drew his inspiration for the Jolly Beggars Cantata. Beside Poosie Nansie's is the thoroughfare know as Cowgate, once a Cattle Market enjoying a busy trade. This was the main road to Cumnock. In 1165, Walter fitz Alan, Steward of Scotland, granted a charter giving land to the Cistercian monks of Melrose. In those days the parish extended to the border with Lanarkshire at Glenbuck. The monks built an abbey, the ruins of which still exist and are known as Hunters Tower or, more recently, as Mauchline Castle.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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