Find what you
need in Ayr.

26 April 1315

The day Scotland's parliament met in Ayr

In a parish church by the sea, Robert the Bruce gathered the nobles of Scotland to settle who would wear the crown after him. The church is long gone. Cromwell's soldiers took it for a storehouse and lookout in the 1650s, and its stones ended up in a steeple on the Sandgate.

The bell tower survived. It still stands among the houses of the Fort area, and volunteers open it on some heritage days.

Read about St John's Tower

25 January 1759

Robert Burns is born in Alloway

His father, William Burnes, had built a four-roomed cottage of clay and thatch in Alloway two years before. Robert Burns was born there and spent his first years in it. The cottage stands under two miles south of the town centre.

The National Trust for Scotland runs it as part of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, which holds more than 5,000 Burns artefacts, his handwritten manuscripts among them. From the museum you can walk to Alloway Auld Kirk, the Burns Monument and the Brig o' Doon. In town, his bronze statue of 1892 stands outside the station.

Read about Burns Cottage

1. 1205William the Lion makes Ayr a royal burgh on 21 May. The charter is still kept by Ayrshire Archives.
2. 1315Robert the Bruce holds a parliament in St John's Church on 26 April and settles the succession to the crown.
3. 1470 to 1525The Auld Brig is built across the River Ayr.
4. 1759Robert Burns is born in Alloway on 25 January and baptised at the Auld Kirk of Ayr the next day.
5. 1830Thomas Hamilton's Town Hall is completed, its spire 225 feet high.
6. 1840The first train service runs from Glasgow, and Ayr becomes a seaside resort.

The whole timeline, from the Roman camp to the Station Hotel fire