Giffordland was a small barony, but the families associated with it played an active part in the history of feudal Scotland.

The Auldmuir Burn runs through a deeply cut glen which has been planted up with beech trees in the vicinity of Giffordland Farm.

Paterson describes Gifford as being a mansion house set on the banks of a rivulet (the Auldmuir Burn) about two miles West of Dalry, small in dimensions, but surrounded by old woods.

[6] The Barony would have had a Moot hill and the small mound in the Giffordland Glen shows signs of having been artificially altered (see illustration).

[11] In 1543 John Craufurd of Giffordland and John Craufurd of Birkheid were found to have failed to support Mary Queen of Scots at the Siege of Coldingham during the troubles linked to King Henry VIII of England's attempts to persuade the Scottish Queen to marry his son, Prince Edward.

[12] John Craufurd obtained a grant of the lands of Giffordland from James VI under the Great Seal on 27 March 1576.

Thomas Craufurd of Walston, their direct descendant, is recorded as a portioner of Giffordland after 1600 and he married a daughter of the Laird of Craufurdland.

The line continued and William Blair married an English Lady, having two sons, the eldest of whom, Edward, was a ward of Chancery due to a commission of lunacy and the youngest therefore became proprietor.

[5] William Dobie states that the younger brother died in London and Edward was therefore the end of the direct male line.