Kilmaurs Place

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Kilmaurs Place from the south

Kilmaurs Place , also Kilmaurs House is a country house in Kilmaurs in the Scottish management unit East Ayrshire . The house stands over Carmel Water and offers a good view of the surrounding area.

history

introduction

View of the “incomplete” building complex

The current building replaced Kilmaurs Castle near Jockshorn , "the ane ancient, strong building, belonging to the Earl of Glencairne, environed with a fair parke, called Carmell wod, form the watter of Carmell that runs by it". (Eng: the formerly strong building that belonged to the Earl of Glencairn and is surrounded by a beautiful park called Carmel Wood, named after the Carmel stream that runs past it). With the construction of the country house, William Cunningham, 9th Earl of Glencairn (1610–1664), Lord Chancellor of Scotland in the years 1660–1664 , began. A very large and imposing building was envisaged, but financial problems and the unexpected death of the client led to the abandonment of the original plans. The current building complex represents the remains of the never completed country house.

The beech alley at Kilmaurs Place in 1912
A miniature of Susanna Montgomery, Lady Eglinton

Statistics from 1791–1799 indicate that “(...) the house known as 'Place' belonged to them, where the former Lord Chancellor had laid the foundations for a very extensive building and partially carried it out had let. But he was forced to abandon his plan because of property problems that he expected to be exempted from by the government he had served. "

According to the McNaught Royal Commission, Kilmaurs Place is said to have been a 17th century country house adjoining the eastern wall of its predecessor; the construction work on the previous building had to be stopped because of the death of the 9th Earl of Glencairn. Tranter describes it as being built on the east wall of its predecessor, Kilmaurs Tower .

etymology
Carmel, whose oldest form is “Caremuall”, is said to be derived from the Scottish Gaelic “Car” (German: Fort) and “Meall” (German: hill) , according to McNaught . So "Carmel" means "fort on the hill".

Adamson called the building “My Lord's Place” in 1875 and went on to say: “With the exception of the country house, which is in excellent condition, the blocks of masonry have subsequently fallen into disrepair and at first glance appear to be the remains of a large building that let times fall by and that was almost leveled to the ground. But this is not the case. The apparent ruins are nothing more than the remains of the walls of an elegant building that was under construction during the lifetime of the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, William, the 9th Earl of Glencairn. ” Hume describes The Place as being built around 1620 with a T-shape Floor plan and a straight staircase to the upper floors in the protruding reveal. He sees the ruins as part of the tower that was built in front of the house that exists today.

McMichael regards the remains as the ruins of the old castle. Tranter thinks that the picturesque country house was built against the east wall of its predecessor, the Kilmaurs Tower . In 1935 it was occupied by tenants of the adjacent farm and he noted that many changes had been made to it. Salter says that today's house was built on the site of an older castle. Davis sees the entire building line as a possible lower floor of a never-completed palace from the 16th century. Close sees the ruins as part of a 15th century tower house in 2012 and the main building as a country house from around 1630, which shares some details with the parish church of Fenwick from 1643.

Kilmaurs House and the Montgomerie family

The coat of arms of the Cunninghame family was probably removed by the new owners, the Montgomerie family.

The rest of the Baronate Kilmaurs together with Kilmaurs Place bought Alexander, 9th Earl of Eglinton , from William Cunninghame, 11th Earl of Glencairn , around 1720. At that time the house was also called "Kilmaurs House".

Susanna Montgomery, Lady Eglinton , lived in this house as a widow for a while . It was common and practical for a widow to move out of the family home and live in the widow's house. It appears that Susanna Montgomery, a widow, first moved to Kilmaurs Place and then, after 1762, to Auchan's House near Dundonald . Letters from 1751 and 1762 are shown as being written in Kilmaurs, and written from 1765 in Auchan's House.

Susanna Montgomery sent a description of Kilmaur's House to one of her daughters, Lady Mary Murray , in the winter of 1751 . In it she described his condition when she moved in:

“The house I'm in is very ugly right now, but I'm making the best of it; I hope that I will soon make it even better than a minister's country house. Nobody loves a good house more than I do, but when I compare this disappointment with others it seems like nothing. Carpenters and bricklayers are still working on it. The sheer necessity makes me move on with them. The house can't withstand wind or weather and I've already fallen through the floor twice. But, since they do it piece by piece, the cost stays the same. As soon as the house is habitable, I will take the pleasure of inviting you. We have a lot of nice coal and it's nice for a house inland, but close to a village, which I see as a disadvantage. "

In 1762, she wrote in a letter to her son-in-law James Moray from Abercairny that her son (the 10th Earl) had left her Auchans House and that she was planning to have it repaired. Millar noted that she withdrew from her position in society after the murder of her son Alexander, 10th Earl of Eglinton, in 1769 by the tax collector "Mungo Campbell". When her second son, Archibald (the 11th Earl) married in 1772, she moved permanently to Auchan's House.

William Logan , the manager of the Robertland estate , lived in Kilmaurs Place, employed a certain Robert Burnes , and wrote a series of letters to his employer between May 1774 and 1784, sometimes referring to Robert Burnes, the poet's uncle Robert Burns related. Logan later lived in Thorntoun House . In 1793, Captain Ralston of Warwickhill resided in Kilmaurs Place.

In 1786 the 14th Earl of Glencairn sold Kilmaurs Place to the Marchioness of Titchfield .

Kilmaurs Place and Morton Park , part of the old estate, was donated to the people of Kilmaurs by Lady Sophia Montgomery , daughter of the 14th Earl of Eglinton, on her death in 1942. But it was named after the Morton family from Lochgreen in 1921 . The official opening was on September 9, 1922. The house was later sold and is therefore now in private hands.

description

The name “Place” in Scottish Gaelic refers to the country house of a large landowner, but in theory and in practice it is a larger building that surrounds a central courtyard. Daa suggests that Kilmaurs Place was supposed to be a larger building with a central courtyard and that it had one, as can be seen from the walls, architectural details and the discoloration of the lawn caused by the draft. The term "palace" only got its current connotation at a later time.

The building complex consists of a main block that lies roughly in an east-west direction and a protruding wing of stairs in the middle of the west facade with a stepped gable . It has two full floors and an attic and, together with modern buildings, forms the outbuildings of the former farm.

In 1956 Kilmaurs Place is described as being restored and used as a farmhouse. On April 14, 1971, Kilmaurs Place was listed as a Category B Historic Building.

Outbuildings from Kilmaurs Place. The gable wall was built from parts of the old courtyard wall.

Davis notes that the house has a T-shaped floor plan and dates from around 1620. The “ruins” seem to be an unfinished first floor of a building line from the 16th century. Kilmaurs Place itself has no vaulted ceilings, although the "ruins" include a slate-roofed chamber, which is still used by current residents and is called "Chancellor's Study". At the beginning of the 19th century the chamber served as a milk house. A beautiful, open fireplace and carved door reveals can be found in Kilmaurs Place itself.

The original entrance was on the stairwell; the former door can still be seen in the masonry of the building, as well as a coat of arms above it. The windows have been changed significantly, as has the ceiling heights in the building. Campbell reports the possibility that Kilmaurs Place could have been built over an old castle that is nowhere to be seen. Tranter writes about the top floor in the steeply sloping roof and the grooved frames of some windows. The house belongs to the very end of the defensive period. Close believes that Kilmaurs Place was necessarily a new building in a previously undeveloped spot and that this building has been heavily modified, apparently with the opening of new windows. In the 1940s the house was described as follows: "The apartments that still exist are more like torture rooms than apartments to live in."

In 1912 traces of an avenue could still be discovered in the field next to the main street, which began on the outskirts and led in a rambling manner to the old house front. Cuthbertson noted that some of these beeches were still there until 1945. The entrance from Mühlengasse over a bridge over Carmel Water is said to have been built when the house front was changed.

The plans of the Eglintons property in Kilmaurs from the years 1788-1791 show an entrance way that leads from the nearby bridge over Carmel Water on Kilmaurs Road straight up to Kilmaurs Place. The formal ornamental gardens are represented as a square made up of three by three squares of equal size, which are separated by paths. These gardens are on the church side of the house, slightly offset towards the Tower House. In 1945 the ruins with vaulted ceilings served as a warehouse for agricultural equipment and the like.

Kilmaurs Place 1912

  • An "unfinished" section of Kilmaurs Place.

  • Details inside.

  • Kilmaurs Place from the south

  • Kilmaurs Place from the park

A suspected wizard, John Stewart , is said to have met regularly with the fairies on Kilmaurs Hill .

Later owners of Kilmaurs Place were the Tannock family , who were contract threshers, and Mr Eric Anderson , who had a do-it-yourself shop in Kilmaurs village.

Kilmaurs Place and environs 2008

  • The driveway to Kilmaurs Place.

  • The Mill Vennel looking towards St. Maurs-Glencairn kirk.

  • Mill Lane with a view of Carmel Bridge

  • The "ruins" and the vaulted chamber in the park

  • The "ruins" at the war memorial

  • The vaulted chamber with the 17th century house in the background

  • Park side of Kilmaurs Place

  • Kilmaurs Place from Townend

The gardens at Kilmaurs Place 2009

  • Front view of the house and garden

  • The main garden in front of Kilmaurs Place

  • Gable wall of the house and a detail of the garden

  • Lawns and flower beds at the delivery entrance

  • Part of the courtyard wall of Kilmaurs Place

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Harvey: Picturesque Ayrshire . Valentine & Sons, Dundee 1910. p. 80.
  2. ^ Sir John Sinclair (editor): The Statistical Account of Scotland . Volume III: Ayrshire . 1791-1799. P. 328.
  3. ^ Duncan McNaught: Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh . A. Gardner, Paisley 1912. p. 103.
  4. ^ Duncan McNaught: Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh . A. Gardner, Paisley 1912. p. 93.
  5. ^ Nigel Tranter: The Fortalices and Early Mansions of Southern Scotland. 1400-1650. The Moray Press, Edinburgh 1935. p. 40.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Duncan McNaught: Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh . A. Gardner, Paisley 1912.
  7. ^ Archibald R. Adamson: Rambles Round Kilmarnock . T. Stevenson, Kilmarnock 1875. pp. 167-168.
  8. ^ John R. Hume: Vernacular Building in Ayrshire . Architectural & Natural History Society of Ayrshire, Ayrshire 2004. Monographs 29. ISBN 0-9542253-2-5 . P. 21.
  9. ↑ George McMichael: Notes on the Way Through Ayrshire and the Land of Burn, Wallace, Henry the Minstrel, and Covenant Martyrs . Hugh Henry, Ayr 1881-1890. P. 146.
  10. ^ Nigel Tranter: The Fortalices and Early Mansions of Southern Scotland. 1400-1650. The Moray Press, Edinburgh 1935. pp. 17-18.
  11. ^ Mike Salter: The Castles of South-West Scotland . Folly, Malvern 2009. ISBN 1-871731-70-4 . P. 48.
  12. ↑ a b Michael Davis: The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire . Self-published, 1991. p. 302.
  13. ^ Robert Close, Anne Riches: Ayrshire and Arran, The Buildings of Scotland . Yale University Press, New Haven 2012. ISBN 978-0-300-14170-2 . P. 465.
  14. ^ AI Dunlop, et al. (Editor): (1959). Ayrshire at the time of Burns . Ayr Archiological & Natural History Society, 1959. p. 301.
  15. ↑ David McClure: David (2002). Ayrshire in the Age of Improvement. Ayrshire Monographs 27. Ayr Archiological & Natural History Society. ISBN 0-9542253-0-9 . P. 170.
  16. ^ A b William Fraser: Memorials of the Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinton . Edinburgh 1859. p. 62.
  17. ^ John Fullarton: Historical Memoirs of the family of Eglinton and Winton, together with relative notes and illustrations . Arthur Guthrie, Ardrossan 1864. p. 75.
  18. ^ John Service: The Memorables of Robin Cummell. Alexander Gardner, Paisley 1913. p. 206.
  19. ↑ AH Millar: The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire. Grimsay Press, Glasgow 1885. ISBN 1-84530-019-X . P. 14.
  20. ↑ John Strawhorn: Letters from a Land Steward. What hey "Poor Uncle Robert" . Annual Burns Chronicle & Club Directory. P. 26.
  21. ↑ James Dobie: Cuninghame Topographized by Timothy Pont. John Tweed, Glasgow 1876. p. 289.
  22. ^ Duncan McNaught: Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh . A. Gardner, Paisley 1912. p. 105.
  23. ↑ Donald Patience: The Kirk of Kilmaurs. Kilmaurs Manse, 1985. p. 20.
  24. ^ Descendents of the 12th Earl of Eglinton . Worldroots.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 22, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / worldroots.com
  25. ^ Mary Horner, Martin Horner: Oral Tradition (2008).
  26. ↑ Alexander Warrack: Chambers in Scots Dictionary . W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh 1982.
  27. ^ Charles McKean: The Scottish Chateau. Sutton Publishing, 2001. ISBN 0-7509-2323-7 . P. 53.
  28. ↑ Entry on Kilmaurs Place  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
  29. ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
  30. ^ Presbytery of Irvine against the Reverend Alexander Inglis. May 1855. A plan of Kilmaurs Place enclosed. Edinburgh, 1885.
  31. ^ Thorbjørn Campbell: Ayrshire. A Historical Guide . Birlinn, Edinburgh 2003. ISBN 1-84158-267-0 . P. 203.
  32. ^ Nigel Tranter: The Fortalices and Early Mansions of Southern Scotland. 1400-1650. The Moray Press, Edinburgh 1935. p. 41.
  33. ^ Robert Close: (1992). Ayrshire and Arran: An Illustrated Architectural Guide . Royal Incorporation of Architecture in Scotland. ISBN 1873190-06-9 . P. 118.
  34. ^ David Cuningham Cuthbertson: Autumn in Kyle and the Charm of Cunninghame . Jenkins, London 1945. p. 165.
  35. ^ A b David Cuningham Cuthbertson: Autumn in Kyle and the Charm of Cunninghame . Jenkins, London 1945. p. 190.
  36. ^ Duncan McNaught: Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh . A. Gardner, Paisley 1912. p. 94.
  37. ^ Scottish National Archive. RHP / 35795-35808.
  38. ↑ Dane Love: Legendary Ayrshire. Custom: folklore: tradition . Carn Publishing, Auchinleck 2009. ISBN 978-0-9518128-6-0 . P. 108.
  39. ↑ Frnk Neil: Oral Tradition (2010).

Web links

Commons : Kilmaurs Place  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 55 ° 38 ′ 15.7 ″  N , 4 ° 31 ′ 25 ″  W.