Macrae's Monument

The Macrae Monument stands on a rise above Monkton in South Ayrshire. It is a tall Corinthian structure of stone, built between 1748 and 1750 for James Macrae by the mason John Swan. The base is square and carries four shell-carved alcoves, one on each side, while an obelisk rises above. Five urns with carved flames crown the corners, and the walls bear reliefs of dolphins, anchors, forts and ships. A storm in 1749 toppled the almost finished monument, but Swan rebuilt it the following year. The monument matters because it commemorates James Macrae, who rose from poverty in Ochiltree to govern Madras for the East India Company. He returned to Scotland with a fortune estimated at £100,000 and bought the estate he renamed Orangefield. Friends may have raised the monument after his death in 1746, though his own bones were never found inside. Restoration in 2001 saved the structure after part of the west wall collapsed in 1996. Visitors reach the monument by a lane from Whiteside Farm. Inside the alcoves the stonework is crisp, and the urns hold eternal flames. Below the chamber archaeologists found six 18th-century graves, two of them laid east–west in Christian fashion. The surrounding field shows no formal garden, only the remains of the old Orangefield woodland. From the rise there are wide views across the Ayrshire countryside.