During feudal times, Robertloan House and Hillhouse were the seats of the local lairds. Fairs were held here in June and October of each year. In 1806 five small steadings comprised the settlement of Loans. The A78 formerly ran through the settlement when it followed the course of the Irvine to Ayr turnpike. After the death of Colonel William Fullarton in 1808, the Fourth Duke of Portland purchased the
Lands of Fullarton that included Loans, the
Lady Isle and Crosbie. A school had been established at the Darley prior to 1840, however it had closed by 1866. In 1877 a school was built in the village itself. Teachers included Miss Jessie A. Meikle, Miss Shaw, Miss Baird, and Miss Martha Meikle. Some of the old houses in Loans were little better than smuggling vaults, having double walls and many cargoes from the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland ended up hidden in the village. The village smithy was once situated on the main street, as was the post office. In 1747 Loans is marked as such with four enclosed areas of land and dwellings with Scallachmill nearby on a road from Fullarton to Irvine. By 1775 Loans is shown as a cluster of buildings on the Irvine to Ayr road with a road now also running to Dundonald. By 1832 Loans is shown with a toll and two additional roads, both running towards Troon and the coast. The 1857 OS Map shows a number of buildings at Sculloch Mill, Robertloan House and two toll bars and associated houses. By 1897 the school and smithy are shown with a nursery with greenhouses established near the crossroads.
Robertloan Robertland was originally a dwelling in the medieval clachan of Loans, Robertloan being the old name for Loans. Robertloan House in the centre of the village was the home of William Dickie, last of the lairds who sold the estate to the Duke of Portland in 1861. Later associated with the Guthrie family, Robertloan was the headquarters of the Kilmarnock Dairy Institute in 1906.
Leprosy In the 14th century
Robert the Bruce is thought to have suffered from
leprosy,
psoriasis or some other skin ailment and is reputed to have drunk from a brook at
Prestwick's "Bruce's Well". The apparent healing effects of the waters caused him to establish a
lazar house, or hospital for lepers. The king endowed the establishment with the income from the lands of Loans, ensuring its survival. The villagers of Loans were required to support eight lepers, each of whom was to have, annually, "eight bolls of meal and eight merks". The meal for the lepers was ground at the nearby Sculloch Mill. When the leper hospital closed and in the 1730s the endowment was taken over by the
Wallaces of Craigie, who continued to meet the obligation, but it was later purchased by a writer from Edinburgh at a judicial sale, selling it on to the magistrates of Ayr for £300, who used it to provide for the inmates of the Ayr poorhouse. As late as 1882 three farmers in the Robertloan accepted responsibility for this ancient tax, and refunded the full assessment of meal and merks to their own tenants and employees. The endowment continued to be paid to the poor of Ayr and Prestwick until 1924, although leprosy had long ceased to exist in Scotland. ==Archaeology==