On one of our walks along the river Ayr in the town we came across this church tucked behind the high street - we are ashamed to admit it but we didn't even know it was there...and had been since 1654!!!
It is the town Pauline grew up in, she was born in Edinburgh and moved here when she was 11 but was of a different 'persuation' to that preached in the 'Auld Kirk'. This plus the fact that the town has grown around the church leaving only a long narrow lane from the high street and a less than salubrious walk along the river to access it may just excuse her lack of knowledge.
This is the church where Robert Burns probably gained his first experience of the 'Kirk' as his father was a church member. This connection offers another excuse for our lack of knowledge of this particular church as it tends to play second fiddle to the 'Auld Kirk' in nearby Alloway made famous by Burns' poems.
We are staying in Alloway this Sunday and crossing over the road to the 'Auld Kirk' which would have probably have remained just another anonymous old churchyard if it had not been for the 'Robert Burns connection'.The ruins date from the early 16th century but there is also evidence of an earlier 13th century building. The kirk stopped being used in 1690 when the parish was absorbed by the town of Ayr. After this, although it continued to be used as a place of worship and for a short time, a school, it fell into disrepair.(I know I'm repeating myself here but it's necessary) When Burns featured it in his poem 'Tam O'Shanter' it would gain a certain immortality It was here Tam came upon witches dancing as he passed drunk on his horse on the way home and was chased over the nearby bridge by them.
"Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh, Where ghaists and houlets nightly cry" - Rabbie Burns
I'm sure it must be an eerie place at night time.
Our visit thankfully was during daylight hours but even then there was still a certain feel about the place.
It didn't help spotting the 'mortsafes'- a cast iron shield temporarily placed over coffins until the body decayed enough to discourage body-snatchers, who supplied fresh corpses to anatomists.
There are many interesting gravestones within the churchyard some depicting the craft of the occupant in some detail. Other simple stones tell sad tales of families loosing not one but as many as four or five very young children to the illnesses of the times, Yet still others show of people reaching,for the times, a ripe old age.
The most interesting headstone should be that of Rabbie's mother and father who are buried here but sadly it's not the original one - that was stolen - is nothing sacred!
Here is an interesting little video of the churchyard...
