About Ayr The Auld Kirk
The Auld Kirk is the parish church of Ayr. We’ve been serving the local community here in Ayr since Burns was a boy and before. Each Sunday, at 11am, we meet, as friends, in this beautiful church to laugh and sing and praise God. Members of the church congregation are involved in our weekly worship, reading from the bible or saying a prayer they made up themselves and the atmosphere is relaxed and informal. You don’t need to worry about what to do and when. Why not come and join in one Sunday and see for yourself?
We’re a church that can trace its roots back to mediaeval times, founded in the late 12th century. Robert the Bruce convened a parliament in Ayr in 1315, and in the mid-seventeenth century, Ayr was chosen to be the site of one of the garrison fortresses constructed by Cromwell’s occupation army, and St John’s Church was commandeered and enclosed within its walls. The Auld Kirk was built by the townspeople as a replacement and has been serving its parish since 1654. For centuries the church has supported the people of Ayr in difficult times, from the Reformation, through two World Wars to more recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every year your church is the town’s gathering place on Remembrance Day, and the commemoration of Robert Burn’s life and death. Following an election, the Auld Kirk is the scene of the historic ‘Kirkin o’ the Council’. We have even had the Prince Charles, as he was then, attend a service for the Ayrshire Yeomanry.
If you’d like to visit this historic church to see the very pew where Burns sat as a lad, to view the ancient military flags that hang from the ceiling, or just to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet, we are there to welcome you.
Since the Auld Kirk operated the town’s first ever welfare system when it opened a ‘Poor House’ on the site of the Kyle Street shopping centre, we have been helping others. With the local council, the congregation established the first hospital in Ayr and to this day we strive to support those who need assistance, at home or abroad.