History of Robert Burns at Stables Cottage near Mauchline

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Stables Cottage has been awarded 3 Stars by the Scottish Tourist Board.

Robert Burns and the History of Stables Cottage
Burns at Stables Cottage?
Robert Burns was one of Scotland's greatest sons. Many believe that he was the greatest poet ever to have lived. He was born in Alloway, near Ayr in 1759 and died just 37 years later. In 1783 he rented a farm at Mossgiel just outside Mauchline with his brother Gilbert. This proved to be an unsuccessful farming venture and he remained there for only a few years. However, it was during this period that he met the woman who was to become his wife, Jean Armour.
Stables Cottage was built at Crosshands just north of Mauchline around 1760. It originally housed horses from the adjacent coaching inn which had been constructed at the same time to service the mail coaches and other passing traffic using the newly opened road between Mauchline and Kilmarnock (now the A76). It is believed that the inn was known as Danfoss Inn.
	Crosshands is just over one mile from Mossgiel. While there is no firm evidence that he frequented the inn at Crosshands, Burns had a well documented passion for socialising. It is a virtual certainty that he would have visited the inn here and would surely have left his horse in what is now Stables Cottage while meeting his friends next door.
Crosshands 100 years ago There are no known pictures of Crosshands from Burns' era, but early photographs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century have survived. If you click on the link below, you will see some old photographs. The top left one of the four shows Crosshands viewed from the north - if you click on it you'll see a bigger, clearer view. The white building is the former inn, now Crosshands House. Stables Cottage is just to the right behind the large dead tree. By this time Stables Cottage was a joiner's workshop and you can just make out the sliding doors where the front door of the cottage is now.
	Click here for the Old Photographs of Crosshands