Nettlehirst

Nettlehirst or Nettlehurst was a small mansion house (NS365504) and estate in the Parish of Beith, near Barrmill in North Ayrshire, Scotland. The house was built in 1844 and burned down in 1932.

The 1856 OS map shows an 'L' shaped building at the site of the later 'castle' with a detached outbuilding nearby and a saw pit close to the house. A Nettlehirst Townhead is marked nearby, lying to the north-west of the house. Few trees are indicated and the mausoleum was not yet built. A driveway led down to the road with a 'lodge-like' building at the entrance. No grooms cottage existed at that time. The 1895 OS shows the groom's cottage and stables, a much larger house, extensive tree planting, but no lodge house, outbuildings or sawpit. Nettlehirst Townhead is not named as such however the building is marked, somewhat enlarged and now 'L' shaped. A burial ground is shown at the end of a long path. A footpath runs from the house area down to Giffen Station. In 1902 a footpath connected the burial ground directly to Giffen Station and the road to South Barr and Gatend. The Nettlehirst Mains buildings are smaller and partly roofless.

This was at its peak a fine mansion, somewhat eccentric in its architecture, also written as 'Nettlehurst', a castle-like structure with 16 rooms, situated on the high ground above the old limekilns, overlooking the Giffen Station, Giffen Viaduct, Barrmill and the Dusk Water. It had a five storey central tower and was surrounded by three storey crow-stepped wings. The Burns family built Nettlehirst House in 1844.

Davis sees the house as being an enlargement of a pre-existing house and attributes the style to lack of finance and amateurish design. The unusual gate-piers, one is taller than the other, still look onto the former groom's cottage. Other buildings nearby were the homefarm and accommodation associated with the limekilns. The surviving ruin with the marriage stone may have been related to the quarry workings after the castle was demolished. It contains a concrete slab with steel rods for attaching a generator or such like.

In July 1932 the house burned down, possibly due to an electrical fire, as mains power was not installed in the district until circa 1935 however the house possessed its own generator. The dramatic fire coincided with the return from South Beach by a special train of Barrmill Sunday School trip on the line from Ardrossan to Giffen Station. Passengers climbed up and watched the fire from the quarry area. The fierce fire was clearly visible from the train and it was a talking point in the village for months. The Kerr family moved to "Drumrossie" in Beith.

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