Robert Burns literally left his mark on Finlaystone. Using a diamond ring received as a gift from his patron and friend, the 14th Earl of Glencairn, he inscribed his name on a window pane in the 'Laird's Room' of the house, along with the date 1768.

Intriguingly, that was not the year of Burns' brief foray into graffiti since he did not actually meet Glencairn until 1786. It appears instead to have been the vintage of a rather fine wine he and the Earl were enjoying at the time. The seal of the bottle can also still be seen at Finlaystone.

Burns' meeting with Glencairn came at a particularly sticky moment in the poet's personal history. His not-yet wife Jean Armour, pregnant with twins by him, had been packed off to Paisley by her affronted parents; meanwhile, he had fallen for a Greenock girl named Mary Campbell - and was planning to emigrate with her to Jamaica.

Fate intervened, however, when the First Kilmarnock Edition of his poems was published and, almost overnight, he was famous. By October Mary was dead, a victim of typhus, and soon to be immortalised by Burns as 'Highland Mary' (you can visit her grave & memorial at Greenock Cemetery, 15 minutes from Finlaystone). By November, he was in Edinburgh, being feted by the well-to-do - among them, James Cunningham, the 14th Earl, who became his patron. His support continued to be vital to Burns throughout the remainder of Glencairn's life, but they were also genuine friends and Burns was deeply moved by the Earl's premature death in 1791. His 'Lament to James, Earl of Glencairn' became a favourite quote of Abraham Lincoln's, particularly the last stanza, which reads:

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