Kilwinning Abbey

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

Historic Scotland says only that the abbey is off the A78 Kilwinning to Ardrossan road and names no parking. North Ayrshire Council lists Woodwynd as a long-stay car park and Oxenward, off Lauchlan Way, as a three-hour short-stay car park (Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm), without publishing a charge for either, so the status is recorded as unknown.

Driving pin: Woodwynd car park, 78 m north of Historic Scotland's own pin on the ruins. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

The ruins of Kilwinning Abbey stand in the centre of Kilwinning beside the town's parish church, the remains of a monastery founded in the late 1100s for Tironensian monks from Kelso, probably by Sir Richard de Morville, whose family also founded Dryburgh. The name means the church of Winnin, after a saint said to have founded a church here in the 700s, and part of a carved cross of about 900 from that early church survives. Best preserved are the south transept, standing almost to its full height, the south wall of the nave with its processional doorway, and part of the west front, where twin towers once flanked the door as at Kelso and Arbroath. John Knox recorded the abbey being cast down by a Protestant mob in 1560. The nave served as the parish kirk until the present church was built over the old choir in 1775. Park in the council car parks nearby.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Kilwinning AbbeyOpen at all times; an unstaffed open site in the town centre, no hours published

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: 'Kilwinning Abbey is free to visit and open year-round.' No hours, closures or notices on 20 October 2026.

The ruins stand beside Kilwinning Abbey Parish Church, a working Church of Scotland church built in 1775 over the old choir, and the Abbey Tower of 1815, which is North Ayrshire Council's. Kilwinning Heritage's Abbey Tower Heritage Centre, which used to open the tower to visitors in summer, has been closed since February 2025 for repairs and hopes to reopen in spring 2027. Neither is part of Historic Scotland's site. An information board on site; no toilets or other facilities.

Photo: The tall south transept gable of Kilwinning Abbey with its round window and three lancets, the parish church roof behind, under a blue winter sky. Rosser1954, CC BY 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kilwinning_Abbey_ruins,_North_Ayrshire.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.