page_title: Fail Monastery
section_title: Micro-history
hierarchical_section_title: Fail Monastery / Micro-history
caption_attribution_description: English: The Monk's Road to Mauchline at Fail, near Redrae Farm. South Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_page_description: Fail Monastery, occasionally known as Failford Abbey, had a dedication to 'Saint Mary', and was located at Fail on the bank of the Water of Fail, Parish of Tarbolton near the town of Tarbolton, South Ayrshire. Most of the remaining monastery ruins were removed in 1952. The official and rarely used title was House of the Holy Trinity of Failford or the Ministry of Failford.
context_section_description: The monks of Fail are said to have built Torthorwald Church in the 13th century.
  Robert Gaw from Fail Monastery was a reader at Barnweil in 1574.
  John Speed's map of 1610 clearly marks Fail Abbey amongst the relatively small number of placenames marked.
  Fail Monastery may have been attached to Paisley Abbey.
  George Henry Hutton (d. 1827), a soldier and amateur antiquary, visited Fail in October 1800 and produced three drawings of the ruins.
  Barnweil church was dedicated to the Holy Rood.
  The road from Ayr to Hamilton and Edinburgh passed through Fail as shown on Roy's map of 1747–55.
  The Fail Well was a spring of fine water located on the roadside.
  The name of the nearby Spittalside or Spittleside Farm strongly suggests a connection with a monastic hospital as the monks were obliged to take and help the sick and weary. This was the home of the poet David Sillar, a close friend of Robert Burns.
  Melrose Abbey had lands at Mauchline and a monk's road ran there via Redwrae, Long Wood, Mossbog, Ladyyard and Skeoch.
  The old hamlet of Failford takes its name from the lands around the monastery, near the head of the Fail and the old ford stood around 80 yards downstream of the old Failford Bridge nearly in line with the Redrae road.
  Ladeside near Crosshands may have been a place of great age for workmen discovered an old coal pit shaft with stone built walls. The depth when the pit was laid open was 12 fathoms, and the pit bing made a slope in the roadway. The monks of Fail Monastery were reputed to have mined coal more or less on the outskirts of their lands and this could have been one of their ancient workings. It is recorded that in 1497 the monks worked coal near Adamhill Farm.
caption: The Monk's road to Mauchline near Redrae Farm
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