Kilmaurs Castle

Kilmaurs Castle
Kilmaurs, East Ayrshire, Scotland UK grid reference NS 42027 40849
Field clearance stones at the site of Kilmaurs Castle
Kilmaurs Castle
Coordinates	55°38′08″N 4°30′41″W / 55.635480°N 4.511272°W / 55.635480; -4.511272
Type	A Hermitage Folly
Site information
Owner	Jocksthorn Farm
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Demolished and 'robbed'
Site history
Built by	The Cunninghame family
Materials	Stone

Kilmaurs Castle was located on the lands of Jocksthorn Farm near Kilmaurs in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is described by Timothy Pont in the early 17th century as "Ye castell is ane ancient ftronge building belonging to ye Earls of Glencairne environed with a fair park called Carmell wod from ye vatter of Carmell yat runs by it." Dobie goes on to state that "The old baronial manor place is supposed to have been situated about a mile south-east of Kilmaurs, where some ruins can still be pointed out on the farm of Jock's-thorn, probably the original Villam de Cuninghame - the first possession of the family." The castle is not to be confused with the later Cunninghame family possession known as Kilmaurs Place which Dobie calls "..comparatively modern" in 1876.

In 1527 Cuthbert Cunninghame is said to have lived at both Jocksthorn and The Place, "assuming that Jocksthorn is indeed Kilmaurs Castle and that the now ruined late-16th or early-17th range at The Place was itself preceded by an earlier building. After the building of the later Place, the castle must have quickly fallen into disuse and decay."

The map by Timothy Pont from circa 1600 shows a typical tower castle within an enclosure with a second area of enclosed woodland running up beside the Carmell Water. A mill is indicated and the dwelling of 'Karmel-Wood' is marked, a farm of that name surviving today (2015). The site is named 'Kilmaers' and lies to the south of the church. Only one tower is indicated in the area and Jocksthorn is not shown. Kilmaurs Castle is the only site in the area shown to have a second wooded enclosure.

In 1612 John Monipennie stated that Kilmaurs Castle was the residence of the Earls of Glencairn, indicating that Kilmaurs Place had not yet been constructed at least not in the form of a suitable residence.

Moll's map of the early 1700s shows the castle but no enclosures. Jocksthorn and Kilmaurs Place are not shown.

The Statistical Account of 1791-99 says of the Earl of Glencairn "that noble family then resided in this parifh, where they had a houfe, fome fmall ruins of which yet remain on the farm which is called Jock's-thorn, near to the road leading from Stewarton to Kilmarnock, ..."