Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Mount Oliphant

Mount Oliphant, a farm in Ayr parish, Ayrshire, 4 miles SSE of Ayr town. The home of Robert Burns (1759-96) from his seventh to his nineteenth year, it familiarised him with 'Alloway Kirk,' the 'Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon,' and other themes of his poetry. His father leased its 80 or 90 acres for £40 a year from his kind master, Provost Ferguson of Doonholm, who lent him £100 to stock it; but the land was hungry and sterile; the seasons proved rainy and rough; his cattle died; and the family had a hard time of it.—Ord. Sur., sh. 14, 1863.


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a farm"   (ADL Feature Type: "agricultural sites")
Administrative units: Ayr ScoP       Ayrshire ScoCnty

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