Failford

The betrothal of the poet Robert Burns and "Highland Mary" (Mary Campbell) is said to have taken place here in 1786[4] or at nearby Coilsfield.[5] In 1921, local Freemasons erected a memorial stone to commemorate this event.[6] By 1895 the ford is no longer shown.[7]

One unusual feature of the village is a range of Almshouses that were constructed using funds from a bequest and had conditions of character, situation and age attached as recorded in 1846 :- "A range of almshouses was erected and endowed, by a bequest of the late Alexander Cooper, Esq., of Smithston, at Failford, near the junction of the Ayr and Fail rivers, for eight persons, who have each a weekly allowance and an allotment of garden ground. The hospital is spacious and handsome, and is designed for inhabitants of Tarbolton and Mauchline, in indigent circumstances, upwards of forty years of age, and who have never solicited alms".[8]

By 1895 a fairly substantial red sandstone quarry had developed at the northern end of Coilsholm Wood, known as Montgomerie Quarry after the owners of the Coilsfield or Montgomery Castle estate, linked by a fright branch to the Mauchline to Ayr railway line.[9] This provided local employment and after it ceased to work the quarry flooded and still exists as such (datum 2017).

Peden's Pulpit.

In the 17th century the covenanter minister Alexander Peden is said to have held conventicles in the remote Coilsholm Wood using a sandstone outcrop that overlooked the River Ayr and this is known as 'Peden's Pulpit'. A path through the nature reserve runs to the site and an interpretation board has been supplied by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. A set of steps were later cut into the rock to provide access to the upper path however this is now too worn to be used safely.