Tourism

PLACES OF INTEREST

Kay Park, Kilmarnock

The 30 acre Kay Park was purchased, laid out, and gifted to Kilmarnock by local insurance broker Alexander Kay. Opened in 1879, the park housed, until the recent fire, the red sandstone monument to Robert Burns. The statue was unveiled on 9th August 1879 by Colonel Alexander of Ballochmyle, before the largest number of spectators Kilmarnock had ever witnessed. The Museum building was in the Scottish Baronial style. It consisted of 2 storeys and a tower, the total height being 80 feet.

Much of the monument was destroyed by fire in 2004 but the famous statue survived intact. It underwent an extensive cleaning and restoration programme in 2008 and was returned to its sandstone surroundings and new courtyard setting to form the centrepiece of the Burns Monument Centre.

The park also contains a network of paths and tree-lined avenues, an artificial lake and a children’s playground.

Just beyond the northern edge of the Kay Park is a striking Corinthian column which was erected to the memory of Scottish pioneers of Parliamentary reform and unveiled by Lord Roseberry in 1885.

In December 1816, 6,000 people met near the site of the present monument to protest against poor representation of Scotland in Parliament. Some who published speeches of dissent were imprisoned and are commemorated on an inscription on the plinth of the monument. 

The column originally featured a statue of liberty which was toppled and destroyed during a storm in October 1936.