Castles and forts in South Ayrshire
The Discover Alone map has 67 castles and forts in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Below are the 60 with the most written about them, pictures first. Every one has its own page with directions and places nearby.
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Turnberry CastleCastle (medieval)Marjorie of Carrick held the young Robert de Brus captive at Turnberry until he agreed to marry her, a bargain that…
Thomaston CastleCastle (16th Century)Thomaston Castle stands west of Maybole as a run-down sixteenth-century ruin where stone debris still falls through….jpg?width=1280)
Penkill CastleCastle (medieval), Tower House (medieval)Penkill Castle is a 16th-century Boyd tower in south Ayrshire, repeated in stone and memory rather than hidden from…
Old Dalquharran CastleCastleOld Dalquharran Castle is a ruined fifteenth-century tower in South Ayrshire, extended into an L-shaped house with…
Montgomerie HouseHouse (post Medieval), Tower House (medieval)No reliable fact connects Montgomerie House to that English exhibition, so the earlier claim must be withdrawn. In…
MiltonCountry House (period Unassigned), Farmstead (period Unassigned), Tower House (medieval)(possible)Milton in South Ayrshire may have begun as a medieval tower house before becoming a farmstead and country house. Its…
Maybole CastleCastleMaybole Castle is a 16th-century L-shaped fortress built for the Earls of Cassillis, featuring seven-foot-thick walls…
Lochmodie CastleTower House (medieval)Lochmodie Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a medieval tower house, its stones marked by age rather than grand…
Loch BradanCastle (medieval)Loch Bradan is a medieval castle in South Ayrshire, Scotland, preserved in the national historic record. Its exact…
Knockdolian CastleTower House (16th Century)Knockdolian Castle is a 16th-century tower house in South Ayrshire, Scotland, built on the foundation of an ancient…
Killochan CastleCountry House (18th Century), Tower House (16th Century)Killochan Castle is a five-storey tower house in South Ayrshire, Scotland, built in 1581 by John Cathcart. Its walls…
Kilkerran HouseCountry House (18th Century), Tower House (medieval)(possible)Kilkerran House stands in the Water of Girvan valley as an 18th-century country house built around a possible medieval…
Kilkerran CastleCastle (15th Century)King James IV raised Kilkerran Castle in 1490 to hold a garrison against the MacDonalds, but Alexander MacDonald, 5th…
KildonanBarracks (17th Century), Castle (medieval)(possible), House (post Medieval)Kildonan is a narrow coastal village on Arran where a rare sandy beach stretches past the ruined tower that the Earl of…
Greenan CastleFort (prehistoric) - (medieval)Greenan Castle stands as a ruined tower house on a sea cliff above Ayr, layered over an older promontory fort and a…
Greenan CastleCastle (medieval), Earthwork (period Unknown), Tower House (medieval)Greenan Castle is a 16th-century ruined tower house perched on a sea cliff in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It began as a…
Genoch FarmFarmstead (post Medieval), House (18th Century), Tower House (medieval)Genoch Farm layers a medieval tower house beneath an 18th century house in South Ayrshire, proving that residence and…
Gadgirth, Old Ha'Castle (medieval)Gadgirth, Old Ha' stands as a medieval castle in South Ayrshire, marked on the official map with a point accurate to…
Fergus LochTower House (medieval)Fergus Loch is a medieval tower house beside a freshwater loch in South Ayrshire, preserving a place where water…
Dunure CastleCastle (14th Century) - (17th Century)Dunure Castle is a ruined stone stronghold on a Carrick coast promontory where Clan Kennedy held power from the 13th to…
Dunduff CastleTower House (medieval)Dunduff Castle is a restored L-shaped stone tower on a rocky knoll above Dunure, built around 1696 but perhaps never…
Dundonald CastleFort (period Unassigned)(possible)Dundonald Castle is a ruined tower house on a South Ayrshire hill, rebuilt in 1371 for Robert II after earlier…
Dundonald CastleCastle (14th Century), Fort (prehistoric) - (post Medieval)Dundonald Castle is a ruined tower house built for Robert II in 1371, standing on a hill where a prehistoric fort once…
Dalquharran CastleCastle (medieval)Adam's mansion still stands beside the abandoned medieval keep, marking the moment the Kennedy family stopped building…
Craigneil CastleTower House (14th Century) - (15th Century)Craigneil Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a fourteenth or fifteenth century tower house, its stones still holding…
Craigie CastleCastle (medieval), Hall House (12th Century) - (13th Century)Craigie Castle rose in South Ayrshire as one of Scotland’s earliest great hall houses, its rib-vaulted chamber…
Cassillis HouseTower House (medieval)Cassillis House is a medieval tower house in South Ayrshire, Scotland, recorded in the national heritage register with…
Carleton CastleTower House (medieval)Carleton Castle rose as a five-storey stone tower above Lendalfoot in the fifteenth century, built by the Cathcarts of…
Camregan CastleCastle (13th Century)Camregan Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a thirteenth-century ruin, its stones weathered into the landscape rather…
Brunston CastleCastle (17th Century)(possible)Brunston Castle began as a Kennedy stronghold in 1569, though it may have stood much longer in shadow. Black Bessie…
Brigend CastleCastle (medieval)Brigend Castle is a ruined tower house overlooking the River Doon, where Montgomerie lairds lived from the sixteenth…
Blairquhan CastleCastleBlairquhan Castle is a nineteenth-century mansion in South Ayrshire built over the buried heart of an older Kennedy….jpg?width=1280)
Bargany HouseCountry House (17th Century), Tower House (medieval)Bargany House stands in South Ayrshire as a layered monument where a medieval tower house survived long enough for a…
Baltersan CastleCastle (16th Century)Baltersan Castle is a ruined L-plan tower house begun in 1584 for John Kennedy of Pennyglen and Margaret Cathcart near…
Auchincruive HouseCountry House (18th Century), Tower House (medieval)Auchincruive House stands on the north bank of the River Ayr, built in 1767 for Richard Oswald after he bought the…
Ardstinchar CastleCastle (medieval)Ardstinchar Castle was a stone stronghold built by Hugh Kennedy of Ardstinchar in the mid-15th century, rising on a…
Ardmillan CastleCastle (16th Century), House (18th Century)Ardmillan Castle is a ruined tower house on the Firth of Clyde that Mary, Queen of Scots entered in 1563. Kennedys…
Pinwherry CastleTower House (medieval)Pinwherry Castle stands as a medieval tower house in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Built in the 16th century, it rises…
DochroyleCastle (medieval)(possible)Dochroyle is a possible medieval castle in South Ayrshire, Scotland. The name is recorded, but the shape and history…
Ailsa Craig, CastleCastle (medieval), Well (period Unassigned)Ailsa Craig rises as a black volcanic island off South Ayrshire, carrying a medieval castle and an unassigned well on…- Underwood HouseHouse (post Medieval), Moat (medieval), Tower House (medieval)Underwood House in South Ayrshire, Scotland, layers a post Medieval house beside a medieval moat and tower house. The…
- TemplehouseHouse (medieval), Tower House (medieval)Templehouse was a medieval tower house in South Ayrshire, held by the Knights Templar before the Gemmells inherited it…
- Sundrum CastleHotel (period Unassigned), Tower House (medieval)Sundrum Castle began as a fourteenth-century tower for Sir Duncan Wallace, Sheriff of Ayr, and still keeps that narrow…
- Smithston CastleCastle (medieval)Smithston Castle stands in South Ayrshire, Scotland, a medieval fortress whose exact boundary remains hidden beneath…
- Sauchrie, Knockdon CastleCastle (medieval)Knockdon Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a medieval ruin, its exact position known to the nearest metre though no…
- Nether Auchendrane HouseFortified House (17th Century)Nether Auchendrane House stands in South Ayrshire as a seventeenth-century fortified residence, its stones built to…
- Monkton CastleTower House (medieval)Monkton Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a medieval tower house, its exact position known to the nearest metre.…
- Maybole, 2, 4 High Street, the CastleEstate Office (period Unassigned), Tower House (17th Century)Maybole Castle stands as a seventeenth-century tower house above the High Street, its stones marked by an estate office…
- Knockdolian BarnsCastle (medieval)(possible), Natural Feature (period Unassigned)Knockdolian Barns in South Ayrshire, Scotland, is a possible medieval castle recorded only as a natural feature…
- Knockdaw CastleCastle (medieval)Knockdaw Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a medieval ruin, its stones worn by centuries of wind and rain. The exact…
- Kirkhill CastleTower House (16th Century)Kirkhill Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a sixteenth-century tower house, its stones still carrying the shape of the…
- Kilhenzie CastleCountry House (19th Century), Garden (period Unassigned), Tower House (16th Century)Kilhenzie Castle stands in South Ayrshire as a layered place where a 16th-century tower house and a 19th-century…
- HillhouseHouse (19th Century), Tower House (16th Century)(possible)Hillhouse stands in South Ayrshire as a nineteenth-century house possibly built upon a sixteenth-century tower, layered…
- Gadgirth CastleHouse (19th Century), Tower House (medieval)Gadgirth Castle stood above the River Ayr from the 14th century, held by the Chalmer family until the old tower gave…
- Fullarton Ice-houseIcehouse (post Medieval), Tower House (medieval)Fullarton Ice-house stands in South Ayrshire, Scotland, a post Medieval structure beside a medieval tower house, its…
- DrumsuieTower House (medieval)Drumsuie is a medieval tower house in South Ayrshire, Scotland, where stone walls still stand near the edge of human…
- Drummellan CastleCastle (medieval)Drummellan Castle stood in the valley of the Water of Girvan until demolition removed it during the 19th Century. It…
- Cloncaird CastleCastle (medieval), Country House (19th Century)Cloncaird Castle began as a stark sixteenth-century tower beside the Kelsie Burn before Henry Ritchie rebuilt its front…
- Carnell HouseCountry House (19th Century), Tower House (medieval)Carnell House stands in South Ayrshire as a layered collision of ages, where a medieval tower house waits beneath a…
- Camp Castle BrochArchaeological placeCamp Castle Broch still stands in South Ayrshire, a ruined tower waiting for the story that built it. The stones may…