This old structure, made famous by the genius of Burns, stands in its churchyard, surrounded with ancient trees, on the banks of the Doon, about three miles southwards from Ayr. The burying-ground contains many strangely sculptured tombstones, and a plain slab marks the grave of the poet's father. Mention of Alloway occurs in 1236. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, when James VI. refounded and enlarged the Chapel Royal of Stirling, he annexed to it the Church of Alloway in Kyle, to form the prebend of one of the canons of that collegiate chapel. In 1690 the parish of Alloway was annexed to that of Ayr, and the church allowed to become ruinous.
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Fig. 1326.—Alloway Kirk. Plan.
The building (Fig. 1326) is 40 feet long by 20 feet broad internally. It is evident that the walls are ancient, but owing to alterations it is difficult to assign the building to any definite date. The principal feature is the two-light window (Fig. 1327), enclosed within one arch in the east gable, but this might be of almost any period before the seventeenth century. The belfry is massive and by no means without good effect, but it is clearly a post-Reformation structure.
On the outside of the south wall an old stoup or benitier has been let into the wall, but what purpose it can have served is far from clear. The church has evidently been used for worship in the seventeenth century, but is now a roofless ruin.
Part of the roof was standing when Captain Grose visited it in the end of last century.
