Photo Willie Lyle
Taken from the High Street, known as the Sorn Road, the cobbled Cross would perhaps have been a Cross more familiar to Burns. The Road to the left is Earl Grey Street, which would not have been known to Burns, having along with New Road, been opened up in 1820. The Sun Inn from Burns' time was a continuation of the Grocer's shop on the corner, where today a busy road junction is situated. The cobblestones were layed over with a more modern tar road surface in 1908, and to quote John Taylor Gibb's book on page 56;
"..and to mention the causeway stones of Mauchline Cross is now to not a few, a sore point, for the stones not raised have been put under, the Cross some three years ago having been laid down with tar macadam."
It would seem that in those days there were also disagreements with the local authorities when it came to preservation of our local and national heritage.