Castles and forts in North Ayrshire

The Discover Alone map has 45 castles and forts in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Below are the 43 with the most written about them, pictures first. Every one has its own page with directions and places nearby.

• Woodside HouseCountry House (period Unassigned), Tower House (medieval)Woodside House stands in North Ayrshire, Scotland, carrying the shape of a medieval tower beneath a later country-house…
• West Kilbride, CrosbieCountry House (17th Century), Tower House (medieval)West Kilbride, Crosbie is a medieval tower house later improved as a 17th-century country house in North Ayrshire. It…
• Wee Cumbrae CastleCastleWee Cumbrae Castle still stands as a castle on the public map of North Ayrshire, though little else is known about its…
• Skelmorlie CastleCastle (medieval), Country House (19th Century)Skelmorlie Castle rose from red sandstone in 1502 as the fortified seat of the Montgomerie clan, watching the Firth of…
• Seagate CastleRuinsSeagate Castle stands as the last surviving stone structure from Irvine's medieval town, having watched the harbour…
• SaltcoatsCastle (medieval)(possible)Saltcoats is a possible medieval castle recorded only as a point within a hundred metres, leaving the real structure…
• Portencross CastleTower House (medieval)Portencross Castle stands as a medieval tower house on a rocky promontory in North Ayrshire, rebuilt in the mid-14th…
• Montfode CastleTower House (medieval)Montfode Castle was a 16th-century tower house belonging to the Montfode family, perched above the Montfode Braes near…
• Lochranza CastleCastleLochranza Castle stands on a narrow Arran peninsula as a ruined hall-house from the late 1200s or early 1300s, probably…
• Little Cumbrae Island, Castle Island, CastleTower House (medieval)Castle Island stands off North Ayrshire as a medieval tower house, its stones still marked by the age that built it.…
• Law CastleTower House (medieval)Law Castle rose on Law Hill in 1468 as a wedding gift for Princess Mary, favouring comfort over defence. Its unusually…
• Largs, Castle HillFort (period Unassigned)Castle Hill rises above Largs as a fort whose builders and dates remain unrecorded. The hill itself still marks the…
• Knock Old CastleCastle (17th Century)Knock Old Castle stands in North Ayrshire as a seventeenth-century ruin, its exact position known though its history…
• Kildonan CastleRuinsKildonan Castle rose in the 13th century as a MacDonald stronghold, its thick walls guarding the Firth of Clyde until…
• Kilbirnie HouseTower House (medieval), Walled Garden (period Unassigned)Kilbirnie House stands as a ruined tower and mansion on the lower Glengarnock Hills, where a deep ravine still guards…
• Kilbirnie CastleRuinsKilbirnie Castle is a ruined tower and mansion house in North Ayrshire, built in the fifteenth and seventeenth…
• Kerelaw CastleCastle (medieval)Kerelaw Castle stands ruined on the North Ayrshire coast, where Stephen Lockhart first held the land in 1191. The…
• Kelburn CastleCountry House (18th Century), Tower House (medieval)Kelburn Castle is the oldest continuously occupied castle in Scotland, holding the Boyle family from the twelfth…
• Irvine, Seagate, Seagate CastleCastle (medieval), Motte (medieval)(possible)Seagate Castle stands in Irvine, North Ayrshire, a medieval ruin where a possible motte still buries itself beneath…
• Hunterston CastleCastle (15th Century), Country House (17th Century)Hunterston Castle is a tower house and later country home in North Ayrshire, Scotland, built for Clan Hunter after…
• Hill of BeithFarmstead (period Unassigned), Tower House (medieval)(possible)Hill of Beith is a ruined castle and farmstead in North Ayrshire where Cuninghame and Kilwinning Abbey interests…
• Glengarnock CastleBuilding (medieval), Castle (medieval), Outworks (period Unknown)Glengarnock Castle is a ruined medieval tower on a rocky promontory above the River Garnock, held by the Cunninghames…
• Fairlie CastleTower House (medieval)Fairlie Castle is a restored stone tower built by the Fairlies of that Ilk in the fifteenth century or 1521, perched on…
• CorrieTower House (medieval)Corrie is a medieval tower house in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It stands as a compact stone witness to local life…
• BlairCountry House (period Unassigned), Tower House (medieval)Blair stands in North Ayrshire as a medieval tower house later read as a country home, anchoring the old Blair lineage…
• Arran, Lochranza CastleCastle (medieval)Lochranza Castle stands on Arran as a medieval ruin, its stones marked by centuries of storm and forgetting. The island…
• Arran, Gleann Dubh, Bruce's CastleCairn (modern), Fort (prehistoric)(possible), Natural Feature (period Unassigned)Gleann Dubh holds a possible prehistoric fort and a modern cairn on Arran, where the land still keeps more than it…
• Arran, Brodick CastleArtillery Fortification (17th Century), Castle (14th Century), Country House (19th Century), Drawbridge (17th Century)Brodick Castle on Arran has worn three shapes: a fourteenth-century castle, a seventeenth-century artillery…
• Ardrossan CastleCastle (medieval)Ardrossan Castle is a ruined medieval stronghold on a rocky ridge above North Ayrshire, first built around 1140 by…
• Tarbert CastleTower House (medieval)Tarbert Castle stands as a ruined tower house above the harbour, holding a royal lineage that stretches from Robert the…
• Site of Original Hunterstoune Village and Hunter CastleArchaeological placeHunterstoune Village and Hunter Castle occupied North Ayrshire before the modern town took their name. Whether a castle…
• Ladyland CastleCastle (medieval)Ladyland Castle stands in North Ayrshire as a medieval ruin tied to the Barclay and Hamilton families, whose blood and…
• Irvine, Stanecastle Road, Stane CastleTower House (medieval)Stane Castle stands as a medieval tower house on Stanecastle Road in Irvine, North Ayrshire. Its point is recorded to…
• Irvine, Eglinton Country Park, Eglinton CastleCastle (medieval), Country House (period Unassigned)Eglinton Castle stands in North Ayrshire as a medieval castle later shaped into a country house, its stones marked by…
• Hessilhead CastleTower House (medieval)Hessilhead Castle stood as a strong medieval tower house beside a loch in North Ayrshire until Francis Montgomerie…
• Giffen CastleTower House (medieval)Giffen Castle was a 40-foot stone tower on a whinstone ridge in North Ayrshire, built in the 15th century and lost to…
• Fullarton CastleCastle (medieval)Fullarton Castle stands in North Ayrshire, Scotland, a medieval fortress whose exact boundary remains hidden behind a…
• Dalry, Monk CastleCastle (medieval)Monk Castle stands in Dalry, North Ayrshire, a medieval ruin reduced to faint traces rather than proud walls. It…
• Castle Hill, DalryFort (period Unassigned)Castle Hill in Dalry, North Ayrshire, still wears the shape of a fort, though no date or builder is recorded. The hill…
• Broadstone CastleTower House (medieval)Broadstone Castle was a stone tower built in the 15th century for John de Liddel, and it stood until about 1850 when…
• Boydston CastleCastleBoydston Castle stands in North Ayrshire, Scotland, a castle marked on the public map. The name suggests boyds, stones…
• Arran, Kildonan CastleCastle (medieval)Kildonan Castle stands on Arran as a medieval ruin, its stones marked by age rather than a clear surviving chamber. The…
• Castle HillCastle (medieval)(possible)Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment records Castle Hill as Castle (medieval)(possible). The official…

Other kinds of place in North Ayrshire

• Archaeology and monuments
• Historic places
• Wrecks and historic events
• Things to do
• Mountains and hills
• Memorials and graveyards
• Woods, forests and old trees
• Cliffs, bays and coast
• Caves
• Viewpoints and information
• Waterfalls, wells and springs
• Islands
• Beaches and strands