The authoritative Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba website endorses the ecclesiastical origins of the name though exact identity of the saint remains unclear.

[10] A hanger is a type of hunting sword, the only remaining Scottish example of which was made in Kilmaurs; it is in the keeping of the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.

This sword is highly ornate with the grip made of tortoiseshell with floral patterns in extremely fine twisted silver wire.

The family built Kilwinning Abbey, a daughter was the mother of John Baliol and another member was one of the murderers of Thomas a Becket.

Robert Burns's patron, James Cunningham the fourteenth earl of Glencairn, upon whose death the poet wrote his touching "Lament", sold the Kilmaurs estate in 1786 to the Marchioness of Titchfield.

Kilmaurs has strong links with the Cunningham family who are associated with the toun of Lambroughton for a significant period during their rise to power.

[19] One sad story redolent of its era is that of a 'professional class' couple from England, Mr. & Mrs. Barker, who committed suicide in Victorian times (1844) by tying themselves together and jumping from Laigh Milton Viaduct into the Irvine, which has a depth of only around three feet (90 centimetres) at this point.

[22] The present Town house with its council chamber and originally two vaulted cells below may date from at least 1709 with repairs recorded in 1743.

The stout wood tank held around fifty gallons and the hose is only two yards long; the engine was hauled by a pair of horses.

[30] Unfortunately the architect did not have a stairway on the drawings, and had to construct a very narrow and winding staircase to reach the upper floor, as a last resort, before the official opening.

The memorial itself, which was designed by William Kellock Brown, was erected at a cost of £900 raised by public subscription and unveiled on 3 April 1921.

[31] To prevent the Covenanters holding 'Conventicles', King Charles II moved highland troops, the 'Highland Host' into the westland of Ayrshire.

Paterson[33] records that in the 1790s inoculation for smallpox had not become general, owing, according to the minister, "to the prevalence of a religious persuasion that the Divine Government, without any care on the part of man, will accomplish whatever is best for him.

So deeply are the tenets of this kind impressed, that all attempts to show the necessity of using those means by which the Providence of God operates, both in temporal and spiritual concerns, are 'houted' and despised.

[34] This was the first iron bridge in Ayrshire[35] and was built across the Carmel Water near St Maurs-Glencairn church to provide a shortcut for pedestrians travelling to Knockentiber and Crosshouse as well as a route to the old Woodhill limestone quarries for local workmen and to the old archery club's ground on the Carmel Holm next to the Woodhill railway viaduct.

It was a wrought iron construction of "fine workmaship" and was paid for by public subscription with every person in the "west" paying a penny towards it.

[16] It was still in a good state of preservation in 1895 and was serviceable as late as the 1980s however its significance was overlooked and it was replaced with a wooden bridge at a time when it was around two hundred years old.

[36] An Iron Age hill fort is located on the summit of Bailliehill or Bullyhill Mount that overlooks the Carmel Water and Carmyle or Waterpark Farm near Knockentiber.

Sir Walter Scott makes several references to the Earl of Glencairn as a supporter of the Scottish kirk and the Cameronians in his novel Waverley.