Historic Places in South Ayrshire

Thomaston Castle near Kirkoswald in South Ayrshire is a ruined sixteenth-century tower house associated with the Kennedy family of Carrick, in the landscape of southwest Ayrshire between Maybole and the coast at Turnberry. The castle is now considerably reduced in height, the ruins standing in farmland near the village. The wider area of south Ayrshire around Kirkoswald is associated with Robert Burns, whose poem Tam O'Shanter features Kirkoswald's church and the fictional characters based on real residents of the village. Burns attended school in Kirkoswald in 1775 and the Souter Johnnie's Cottage in the village, home of the original Souter Johnnie from the poem, is preserved by the National Trust for Scotland.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Turnberry Castle near Maidens in South Ayrshire is a ruined medieval castle on a clifftop promontory at Turnberry Point, associated with the birthplace of Robert Bruce, King of Scots and one of the most significant figures in Scottish history. The site is now within the grounds of the Trump Turnberry golf resort, one of the most celebrated links courses in Scotland, and the castle ruins visible on the headland represent the last fragments of the fortress where the Bruce family had their chief Ayrshire seat. Bruce is traditionally said to have been born at Turnberry in 1274. The lighthouse at Turnberry Point now occupies part of the castle site, and the combination of medieval ruins, coastal scenery, lighthouse and world-famous golf links makes Turnberry one of the more unusual heritage juxtapositions on the Ayrshire coast.

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.