Kilwinning Abbey was a Tironensian Benedictine monastic community whose magnificent ruins sit in the centre of Kilwinning town. The Tironensian order took its name from Tiron in the diocese of Chartres. Kilwinning means “the church of Winnin” and the abbey was dedicated to Saint Winning and the Virgin Mary. Traditional holds that St Winnin was a holy man who first set up a church here in the 700s, while the abbey was established later sometime between 1162 and 1168 with monks from Kelso Abbey. The only parts surviving from the…
