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Alteration to opening times. From Sunday 15 May 2022, the Tower will be open on Saturdays and Sundays ONLY from 1-3pm. Further dates / times to be announced.

FREE events. Three of Scotland's top authors of historical fact and fiction come to Kilwinning for one day. Why not come and meet all three?

Highland-based author Philip Paris will use his novels The Italian Chapel and Effie’s War to highlight some of the challenges encountered by writers when trying to separate ‘fact’ from ‘fiction’, as well as the moral dilemma that can arise when uncovering previously secret, highly sensitive information from the past. ‘Writers have a duty of care to people and places,’ says Philip. ‘When you unearth a story that is ‘gold dust’ to the writer yet potentially harmful to someone else, you are faced with very difficult decisions. Always at the back of your mind is that if the story is told … it can never again be a secret.’

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Margaret Skea was brought up in Ulster during the ‘Troubles’ and she will talk about how that conflict impacted on her perceptions of 16th century Scotland. The Munro Trilogy, set against the backdrop of the turmoil of the closing years of that century, Margaret’s trilogy of books follows the fortunes of a fictional family trapped at the centre of a notorious historic feud. Known as the Ayrshire Vendetta, it began in the 15th century and wasn’t finally resolved until the latter part of the 17th, the Cunninghames and Montgomeries dubbed the ‘Montagues and Capulets’ of Ayrshire. Margaret’s talk will focus both on the difficulties of her research and on her personal background.

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Ayrshire historian and author Dane Love will take a look back at Ayrshire's folklore and customs in Legendary Ayrshire. Dane will talk about the places traditionally associated with early saints, as well as rocks and stones that were perhaps places of pilgrimage and ancient wells and strange caves which can be found all over the county. There are traditional tales of ghosts and hauntings, fairies and witches, as well as the ancient festival of Beltane. Some of the old traditions associated with birth, marriages and death, often unique to this county, are recalled, as well as other customs that took place at different times of the year.

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The Earl and the Exciseman is the story of the violent death of the 10th Earl of Eglinton in 1769 and the subsequent trial of Mungo Campbell. Using previously unavailable sources, James Kennedy meticulously describes the event which rocked the British establishment at the time, and the legal processes in Georgian Edinburgh which are shocking to the modern mind and which favoured the land-owning elite over the ordinary man. Launched on 13th July 2021. See shop page for details. 

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