Situated 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, the village of Mauchline is most noted for its associations with Robert Burns, and there is a museum in the house occupied by Burns and his wife Jean Armour, a Mauchline native. Nearby is Poosie Nansie's tavern associated with Burns setting of 'The Jolly Beggars', as well as the National Burns Memorial Tower. Burns was a tenant for nine years at nearby Mossgiel Farm to the north. He engaged in various affairs at Mauchline and both he and Jean were publicly rebuked by the minister, Reverend Auld, for their sins.
Monks from Melrose Abbey constructed Mauchline Castle (c.1450) as a base for their Ayrshire estates. The village was also noted for its handloom weaving, the manufacture of collectable wooden Mauchline ware (from the 1820s until 1933) and for its horse and cattle fairs. Kays of Scotland have had their factory here since 1851 and are now one of only two sources of curling stones in the world. Mauchline Colliery was sunk 1¼ miles / 2 km to the north at Dykefield in 1925 and employed up to 876 men. It produced up to 250,000 tons of coal annually but closed in 1966. Mauchline creamery operated at Haugh, a mile (1.5 km) to the south, between 1936 and 2008.
