Archaeology Notes

Event ID 700049

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/700049

NS35SW 1 30357 54113

(NS 3035 5411) Kilbirnie House (NR) (remains of)

OS 6" map (1970)

The Place of Kilbirnie is much dilapidated and neglected. The buildings are of two distinct periods - a late 15th century keep and additional 17th century buildings. The keep, at the NW corner, measures 42ft by 32ft 7ins. with walls 7ft - 8ft thick. It is four storeys high and has two vaulted floors. It is thought to have been built about 1470 by Malcolm Crauford (J Bryden 1908). The addition, made by John Crauford about 1627, is an oblong building 74ft 4ins by 25ft 3ins, unusually the entrance is within a projecting porch. Projecting from the keep on the N are ruins of an oven and other buildings. The building was burned down in 1757 and allowed to become derelict.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887

Kilbirnie House is generally as described and is in a fair state of preservation.

Visited by OS (DS) 4 September 1956

The most southerly turret and a large part of the 17th century building have now fallen; otherwise Kilbirne House is as described.

Visited by OS (RDL) 12 May 1964

The 15th century keep is in a stable condition and appears to have deteriorated little since the report of OS (DS). What little remains of the 17th century hall is in a dangerous state. Just to the S of the hall are the remains of a possibly contemporaneous walled garden, divided in two, and now featureless and pastured. In the SW the subsantially- built rubble walling remains some 4m high.

Visited by OS (JRL) 13 December 1982.