Kilmaurs (from Scottish Gaelic Cill Mhàrais) is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland which lies just outside of the largest settlement in East Ayrshire, Kilmarnock. It lies on the Carmel Water, 21 miles (34 kilometres) southwest of Glasgow. Population recorded for the village in the 2001 Census recorded 2,601 people resided in the village It was in the Civil Parish of Kilmaurs.

The fossilised remains of eight mammoths were found in Woodhill quarry, Kilmaurs.

Kilmaurs was known as the hamlet of Cunninghame until the 13th century. The population in 1874 was 1,145. Alex Young suggested that the name Kilmaurs comes from the Gaelic meaning Hill of the Great Cairn. Young’s suggestion for the Gaelic origins of the placename Kilmaurs is extremely unlikely. Earliest medieval records refer to an early medieval church dedicated to a saint (probably a Saint Maura) closely associated with the origins of the ancient settlement. The authoritative Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba website endorses the ecclesiastical origins of the name though exact identity of the saint remains unclear.

It was once noted for its cutlery, shoe and bonnet workshops, and there were iron and coal mines in the neighbourhood. A hanger is a type of hunting sword, the only remaining Scottish example of which was made in Kilmaurs; it is in the keeping of the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow. The hanger sword is marked 'Kilmares' and is marked 'DB' for the maker or cutler, David Biggart, who also made knives and forks. This sword is highly ornate with the grip made of tortoiseshell with floral patterns in extremely fine twisted silver wire. Fork over fork, is part of the kilmaurs coat of arms, relating to the history of the village cutlery heritage and for forking out prisoners and those hiding in hay to avoid capture. Kilmaurs was famous for its kale which was an important foodstuff. A story is told of how a neighbouring village offered to pay a generous price for some kale seeds, an offer too good to turn down. The cunning locals agreed, however a gentle roasting on a shovel over a coal fire ensured that they never germinated.

The Parish church, Saint Maurs, now St Maurs-Glencairn, dates from 1170, and was dedicated either to the Virgin or to a Scottish saint of the 9th century called Maura. Maura was a Scottish saint who is said to have died in 899. She lived and worked on the isle of Little Cumbrae, and was thought to be the daughter of a Scottish Chieftain. It was enlarged in 1403 and in great part rebuilt in 1888.

The reputed warlock, John Stewart, is said to have regularly met with the fairies on Kilmaurs Hill.

Adjoining it is the Glencairn Aisle, burial-place of the Earls of Glencairn, the leading personages in the district during several centuries, some of whom bore the style of Lord Kilmaurs. The aisle, designed and erected in 1600 by David Scwgal, Mason burgess from Carel, (he was also responsible for designing the tomb dedicated to William Schaw, James VI's Master of Works in Dunfermline Abbey), contains the restored tomb of the 7th. Earl with his wife and eight children. Their family name was Cunningham, adopted from the baillie which they acquired in the 12th century, or more probably from the old district of Cunninghame (Ayrshire) where the town is situated.

The De Morville family lived at Tour house nearby. The family built Kilwinning Abbey, a daughter was the mother of John Baliol and another member was one of the murderers of Thomas a Becket. The town was made a burgh of barony in 1527 by the earl of that date. Robert Burns's patron, James Cunningham the fourteenth earl of Glencairn, upon whose death the poet wrote his touching "Lament", sold the Kilmaurs estate in 1786 to the Marchioness of Titchfield. Later the family held the title of Duke of Portland.