Historic Places in Ayrshire

Baltersan Castle is a ruined sixteenth-century tower house near Maybole in South Ayrshire, associated with a branch of the Kennedy family, the dominant noble dynasty of Ayrshire and Carrick throughout the later medieval and early modern periods. The wider area around Maybole is rich in Kennedy family heritage: Crossraguel Abbey, one of the finest Cluniac monastic sites in Scotland, is nearby in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and the great Culzean Castle, rebuilt by Robert Adam in the eighteenth century, provides the most spectacular architectural expression of continuing Kennedy importance in Ayrshire. The pastoral landscape of inland Carrick provides a quiet agricultural backdrop to these heritage assets.

Barr Castle is located near the village of Lochwinnoch. The castle was a four storey tower house, with the main hall was on the first floor, accessed via a turnpike stair. The chambers were in the upper floors. The castle is now in ruins, and the gable ends of the castle have collapsed. There is little remaining of the courtyard.

Caprington Castle is located less about 2 miles from Kilmarnock in Ayrshire. The building is now a mansion with battlements - the original keep, and the original turnpike stair are incorporated into the current building. Caprington Castle has been the Cuninghame family for many generations. The earliest parts of the castle date from the 15th or 16th centuries. The castle was remodelled in Georgian style around 1780. Further renovations were carried out around 1820 in a baronial style.

Cloncaird Castle near Kirkmichael in South Ayrshire is a historic castle of medieval and later origin in the valley of the Water of Girvan, in the Carrick district of Ayrshire that was the birthplace territory of Robert Bruce, King of Scots and architect of Scottish independence. The various castles and tower houses of Carrick, including Turnberry Castle on the coast, are associated with the Bruce family and the network of noble allegiances that shaped the Wars of Independence in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The surrounding landscape of the Girvan valley and the Carrick hills combines agricultural valley floors with moorland uplands, and Crossraguel Abbey and Culzean Castle to the south provide the major heritage destinations of the wider Carrick district.

Culzean Castle sits on a cliff above coves, and is close to Maybole in Carrick, on Scotland's Ayrshire coast. The castle is three storeys high and is protected by a tall wall. There is an abundance of plants around it, and its clock tower is visible from outside the keep. There are many, many windows in both rectangular and arched varieties, and several chimneys are visible on the roof. Facilities Culzean Castle is open to the public, and also serves as a hotel with a number of private suites. It accommodates for weddings and receptions as well as business functions and the like. The earliest records of there being a tower on the estate are from the 1400s, but it is possible that there was a building there earlier still. It was once known as 'Coif Castle' or 'House of Cove' due to the coves lying beneath it. The history of Culzean on record stems from 1569 when the 4th Earl of Cassillis gave the Culzean lands to his brother, Sir Thomas Kennedy, who started to expand the tower in the 1590s. Culzean became more of a home than a castle and its gardens and terraces were constructed by the 1700s. Around this same time the name was changed to Culleane Castle. In the same century, the modest tower house was altered vastly and became the mansion of sorts that it is today. The castle was given to the National Trust for Scotland in 1945. The Arts Culzean featured in the 1973 film, The Wicker Man. It has also appeared in Most Haunted in 2002.

Dean Castle in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, is a medieval castle complex comprising a fourteenth-century keep and fifteenth-century palace in a country park of considerable scenic quality. The seat of the Boyd family for several centuries, the castle was restored in the early twentieth century by the eighth Lord Howard de Walden who assembled remarkable collections of arms, armour and early musical instruments now displayed within. The arms and armour collection is one of the finest in Scotland spanning several centuries of European martial culture. Dean Castle Country Park provides extensive grounds for walking, cycling and wildlife watching, gifted to the people of Kilmarnock and providing one of the most accessible and varied heritage and recreational destinations in East Ayrshire.

Dundonald Castle near Troon in Ayrshire is a dramatically sited medieval castle on a prominent volcanic hilltop in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, with panoramic views extending from Arran to the Galloway hills. The site has been fortified since at least the Iron Age and the present tower house was built in the 1370s by Robert II of Scotland, the first Stewart king, as one of his principal residences. Robert II and his successor Robert III both died at Dundonald, giving the castle royal dynastic significance in the history of the Stewart dynasty. The visitor centre interprets the site's long history and the great tower's impressive scale demonstrates both the defensive capability and domestic comfort expected of a royal residence.

Dunure Castle is located about 5 miles south of Ayr in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. Dunure Castle today stands in ruins on a rocky promontory. Dunure castle has been in ruins since the mid 1700s, and stones were removed for local building projects. This destruction was halted in the 1800s. The castle has recently been consolidated and is now partly accessible to visitors. From the 13th century, Dunure Castle was the fortress of the Kennedy family, the Earls of Cassilis. The castle dates to at least the 1200s when a stone keep was built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Firth of Clyde. The Kennedy family expanded the castle in the 15th and 16th century, and a curtain wall was built round the whole castle. New buildings included a kitchen range, chapel, great hall, prison as well as living accommodation. In 1429 a meeting took place at Dunure between James Campbell, representing King James I of Scotland and John MacDonald, representing the Lord of the Isles. MacDonald was killed, and James I had Campbell put to death in an unsuccessful effort to appease the Lord of the Isles. Gilbert Kennedy, 4th Earl of Cassilis, forcefully acquired church land during the Reformation in the 1560s. In 1569 he arranged for Alan Stewart, administrator of Crossraguel Abbey to be kidnapped and taken to Dunure Castle, where he was roasted on a spit over an open fire in the castle kitchens until he agreed to sign over the abbey estates to Gilbert Kennedy.

Eglinton Castle is a ruined mansion just south of the town of Kilwinning and 1.5 miles north of Irvine in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the ancient seat of the Earls of Eglinton. The castle was built between 1797 and 1802 in Gothic castellated style with a central round keep and four outer towers. The Eglinton Tournament was held in 1839, a medieval tournament, attracting thousands of visitors. Eglinton Castle was abandoned when the family ran out of money building a harbour at Ardrossan. It was unroofed in 1925 to be used for target practice, and the shell of the house was partly demolished in 1973. All that survives is a single corner tower and some low walls. The ruins are near the Eglinton Park visitor centre.

Glenapp Castle near Ballantrae on the Ayrshire coast is a Victorian Scottish Baronial country house hotel of 1870, one of Scotland's finest small luxury hotels, with turreted roofline and richly textured stonework characteristic of the best High Victorian Baronial architecture. The castle stands in extensive private grounds above the coast with views across the Firth of Clyde to Ailsa Craig, Arran and the distant Kintyre peninsula. The gardens feature exceptional woodland walks, walled gardens and rhododendron and azalea plantings creating one of the finest private garden landscapes on the Ayrshire coast. The Ayrshire coast south of Girvan provides dramatic coastal scenery with Ailsa Craig visible offshore, and the countryside of Carrick, birthplace territory of Robert Bruce, provides a historically and scenically rich rural backdrop.

Greenan Castle is a dramatically situated ruined sixteenth-century Kennedy family tower house on a coastal clifftop south of Ayr, its walls rising directly from the cliff edge with the sea visible below and views extending north to Ayr and south toward Ailsa Craig. The Kennedy family's dominance of Carrick, including this coastal fortification overlooking Ayr harbour and the lower Firth of Clyde, was central to the medieval history of Ayrshire. The castle fell out of use following the decline of Kennedy power in the seventeenth century, and the combination of abandonment and coastal erosion has created the precarious and atmospheric ruin visible today. The county is the birthplace of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, and the Burns Trail links the various Ayrshire sites associated with his life and work.

Kelburn Castle at Fairlie on the Ayrshire coast near Largs is the ancient seat of the Boyle family, Earls of Glasgow, and has been in continuous occupation by the same family for over eight hundred years. The castle combines a thirteenth-century tower with later additions spanning several centuries of occupation. Kelburn Castle is also famous for its large and colourful mural painted on the keep by Brazilian street artists in 2007, creating one of the most striking and unexpected juxtapositions of medieval heritage and contemporary urban art in Scotland. The castle grounds include a spectacular gorge garden with waterfalls, ancient trees and the famous Secret Forest adventure playground making it a popular family destination. Views across the Firth of Clyde to the Isle of Arran and the Cowal hills are outstanding.

Kildonan Castle is a ruined thirteenth-century castle on the southeast coast of the Isle of Arran in Ayrshire, standing above a beach with exceptional views across the Kilbrannan Sound toward the Kintyre peninsula. The castle was associated with the MacDonald lords of the Isles and later the Stewart family, controlling this important stretch of the Arran coast and its approaches to the Sound. The ruins are relatively modest but the coastal setting is one of the most scenic of any castle in Arran, with the broad sandy beach and the Kintyre hills visible across the narrow strait. The Isle of Arran, accessible by ferry from Ardrossan, is one of Scotland's most popular island destinations, offering exceptional walking on Goatfell and the granite peaks, a distillery and a well-preserved prehistoric landscape.

Law Castle near West Kilbride in North Ayrshire is a well-preserved fifteenth-century tower house that stands on a low ridge in the farmland between the Clyde Coast and the Ayrshire hills, commanding views across the Firth of Clyde to Arran and the Cowal Peninsula beyond. The castle dates from around 1468 and is associated with the Boyd family, one of the most powerful noble families in late medieval Scotland whose brief domination of the Scottish crown in the 1460s represented one of the more dramatic episodes in the turbulent politics of the minority of James III. The Boyd family connection gives Law Castle a significance beyond its modest scale. Thomas Boyd, who became Earl of Arran through marriage to the king's sister during the period of Boyd family ascendancy, is thought to have been involved with Law Castle during this period. The family's subsequent fall from power and the execution and forfeiture that followed the end of their dominance serves as a reminder of how quickly fortune could reverse for even the most powerful families in fifteenth-century Scotland. The castle itself is a good example of the Ayrshire tower house tradition, built in the distinctive local red sandstone that gives so many of the historic buildings of this part of Scotland their warm, characteristic colour. The tower retains much of its original fabric and presents an imposing profile across the agricultural landscape despite its relatively modest footprint. The defensive features typical of the period, including the wall thickness, the arrangement of internal spaces and the limited external openings, can be read clearly in the surviving structure. The North Ayrshire coast is an underrated destination that combines accessible coastal walking, views across to Arran, ferry connections to several Clyde islands and a concentration of historical sites including the nearby Portencross Castle on the shore itself. Law Castle adds an inland dimension to this coastal heritage picture.

Lochranza Castle is a ruined late medieval tower house at the northern end of the Isle of Arran, standing at the head of Loch Ranza with views down the sea loch toward the Kintyre peninsula. The castle was associated with the MacDonald lords of the Isles and later with Robert Bruce, who is said to have landed at Lochranza returning from Ireland in 1307 at the beginning of his campaign to recover the Scottish crown. The atmospheric ruin reflected in the still waters of the loch provides one of the most iconic and frequently photographed images of Arran. The village of Lochranza is also home to the Isle of Arran Distillery, offering tours and tastings of the island's whisky production. The northern Arran landscape of dramatic mountains and sea lochs makes Lochranza one of the more rewarding bases on this accessible and scenically outstanding island.