Both Robert Burns and James Andrew, the miller at Barskimming Mill, had a romantic interest in her, and one visit led to the composition of the poem and dirge "Man was made to Mourn".

[6] Kate lived in a sylvan and rural location at the old Barskimming Bridge or Kemp's House (NS4906525460) that lay on the north or Mauchline side of the road to Stair about two miles south of the town centre,[7] demolished sometime after 1861.

[11] Kate lived with her elderly and disabled father who had a slight paralysis,[12] and on the recorded occasion of one evening visit by Robert Burns and James Andrew, she was not at home because she was out in the fields looking for a cow that had wandered, resulting in her competing admirers having, as it turned out, productive time on their hands whilst awaiting her return.

records from a "correspondent" who recalled the words of James Andrew, miller of Barskimming Mill, that Kate's father was "... not originally possessed of the best of tempers, was rendered peevish and querulous by disease and in consequence of slight paralysis, generally supported himself on two sticks".

[14] One evening, Robert Burns walked from his then-new home at Mossgiel down to the Barskimming Bridge House that lay next to the River Ayr with the intention of courting Kate who had caught his eye as a "trim trig lass".

Robert read out his new work and also gave James a copy of the poetry that the occasion had created and this was how it is said that "Man was Made to Mourn" came finally and fully into existence.

[20] The Burns family had moved to Mossgiel or Mossgaville from Lochlea near Tarbolton in March 1784, and Robert is recorded to have written "Man is Made to Mourn" in 1784,[21] so his courtship of Kate Kemp must have been in that year.

[24] James was buried in the cemetery at Stair Parish Church[25] with a cast iron memorial made by Smith's Patent Sun Foundry.

Considerable trouble had been expended in building a substantial level stone plinth for the house in this awkward and space restricted position.