A story developed that another Sir Richard de Morville who was involved in the murder of Thomas Becket was the founder of the abbey, however despite the likelihood of the families being the same, the dates of the events make this connection impossible.

[5] At the beginning of the 17th century they had been seen in the possession of the Earl of Eglinton until they were loaned to the Ayrshire and Galloway Archaeological Society who were preparing a publication that was never published.

An early legend tells of Saint Winning sending his monks to fish in the River Garnock, however no matter how hard they tried or how long they persevered they could catch nothing.

It is clear that the river has substantially changed its course in recorded history, previously having entered the sea at Stevenston, Ardeer therefore being an island at that time.

[8] The historian John Smith records that Corsehillmuir was the site of the ecclesiastical execution by burning of witches in the 17th century, and the hanging of other types of condemned criminals from the barony.

[10] King Robert II granted the abbey a charter, erecting all the lands of the Barony of Kilwinning into a free regality, with full jurisdiction.

[14] In about 1470 James III granted the right to the Abbots of Kilwinning to hold Chamberlain Courts on one privileged acre of land between the Corsehill Burn and Bridgend.

[16] The revenues of the abbey were calculated in the 1860s as being then equivalent to £20,000,[22] or well over 2 million in modern terms (2008),[23] being derived a variety of sources, including the Parishes and churches of Irvine, Kilmarnock, Loudoun Kirk, Dalry, Ardrossan, Kilbirnie, West Kilbride, Dunlop, Stevenston, Beith, Dreghorn, Dumbarton, South and North Knapdale, Kilmory and Kilbride.

James, a member of a Flemish family, at or soon after its foundation, gave the revenues of Loudoun Kirk, to support the monks of the then newly founded Kilwinning Abbey, and in return a priest (curate) was provided to attend to the spiritual needs of the parishioners.

[25] The practice at one time of assigning the revenues of parishes to middlemen, who paid a fixed sum to the abbot, was the cause of much disagreement and dissatisfaction.

[29] In Kilwinning as elsewhere, the local aristocracy no doubt exploited the situation to grab as much of the church's property and land as possible, something that had in fact been happening before the Reformation, as indicated by the plundering of 1513.

Those that had not already been destroyed by English armies fell into ruin simply because they no longer had the revenues and rents to support them from their wider lands.

Wind and weather did most of the damage thereafter, though much of Kilwinning Abbey was still standing by the time Timothy Pont visited Scotland in the early 17th century.

[30] In the 16th century the abbey had been gradually secularised and protestantised; the last abbot, Archbishop Gavin Hamilton of Roplock, died at Restalrig, outside Edinburgh on 'Black Saturday, 15 June 1571, following a skirmish between the parties supporting the Queen and the opposing Protestant faction under the Earl of Morton.

Alexander, the elder, was shot and killed at his 'palace' gate of Montgreenan by Sir Robert Montgomerie of Skelmorlie on 1 August 1586, as a direct result of the assassination of the Fourth Earl of Eglinton at Lainshaw, Stewarton, in April of that year, an act that he was thought to have had a hand in.

[35] This was confirmed when the earl obtained, on 5 January, a Charter under the Great Seal which invested him with these lands and titles of Kilwinning Abbey and its 16 associated parish churches.

[31] A legend tells of Saint Winning sending his monks to fish in the River Garnock, however no matter how hard they tried or how long they persevered they could catch nothing.

[36] The author John Service relates a story of the murder of the Earl of Eglinton's wife on Ardeer by Nigellus, the Abbott of Kilwinning Abbey in the 16th century.

Pilgrims came to Kilwinning Abbey partly because of the miracles that were performed there and the Earl of Eglinton, a follower of John Knox, strongly voiced his disbelief and also stated that he would stop paying tithes to the monks.

After the earl had died the last monk of Kilwinning Abbey is said to have confessed to his part in this awful crime and thereby revealed the truth behind the unexplained disappearance of the Countess of Eglinton.

[42] Seagate Castle was developed as a town house for the 3rd Earl of Eglinton between 1565 and 1582 and the entrance doorway may have been built from the ruins of Kilwinning Abbey.

Kerelaw Castle was rebuilt, having been burnt down by the Montgomeries, sometime after 1488 and is reported to have contained a number of carved coats of arms of the Scottish nobility, taken from Kilwinning Abbey.

[46] A major development or reconstruction phase took place in the 1230s, possibly completed by one of the de Morville daughters as the male line had died out.

[50] De Morvilles mound at Dreghorn was supposed to have commemorated a daughter of the family, drowned at the Holm ford;[51] any possible link to the abbey is unrecorded.

[52] A local tradition also asserts that were secreted away on one of the crannogs on the nearby Ashgrove or Stevenston Loch which conveniently lay just off the old Kings Road from the abbey to Portencross.

[55] The one remaining northern tower stood until 1814 when it was deemed unsafe and demolished with gunpowder, just when strengthening works were about to begin; one wall had just collapsed with a mighty crash that shook everything as if there had been an earthquake.

Designs and plans were quickly produced for a replacement tower, the first by John Connell of Dalgarven then a second and third set by the architect David Hamilton from Glasgow.

The Kilwinning Archers still meets regularly, including the annual papingo shoot held in the grounds of the Abbey on the first Saturday in June.

Dobie also records that a recent building had incorporated in its gable end a stone from the abbey representing scripture scenes.

Persistent rumours exist of a two-mile long ley tunnel which is said to run from Kilwinning Abbey, under the 'Bean Yaird', below the 'Easter Chaumers' and the 'Leddy firs', then underneath the River Garnock and the Lugton Water on to Eglinton Castle.