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Glengarnock Castle
Building (Medieval), Castle (Medieval), Outworks (Period Unknown)
Site Name Glengarnock Castle
Classification Building (Medieval), Castle (Medieval), Outworks (Period Unknown)
Canmore ID 42179
Site Number NS35NW 8
NGR NS 31029 57355
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/42179
- Council North Ayrshire
- Parish Kilbirnie
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Cunninghame
- Former County Ayrshire
Field Visit (4 September 1956)
NS35NW 8 3102 5735.
(NS 3102 5735) Glengarnock Castle (NR) (remains of)
OS 1:10000 map (1980)
Glengarnock Castle is an example of a keep with courtyard attached, of the period 1400-1542, and with various later buildings in the courtyard. The keep measures about 45 1/2ft by 31 1/2ft, with vaulted ground and first floors. It is too ruinous to say whether there were other floors. The buildings round the courtyard have been at least two storeys high, that on the S having been a kitchen. The neck of land on which the castle stands has been isolated by a ditch and mound some 70 yds from the walls.
(D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889)
Glengarnock Castle, which is as described above, is in a good state of preservation. A tablet on the wall of the keep states that W C Patrick 'Strengthened the ruins of this ancient castle AD 1841'.
Crossing the promontory upon which the castle is sited, and 70.0m E of the castle is a ditch 30.0m in length, with an average depth of 4.0m and width of 8.0m. The mound referred to by MacGibbon and Ross is E of the ditch and appears to be natural.
Visited by OS (DS) 4 September 1956
Field Visit (13 May 1964)
Previous field report confirmed. The ditch to the E of the castle merges into a natural gully on the S side of the promontory. On the N side of the promontory and midway between the castle and the ditch are the footings of a building up to 0.3m high, measuring 16.0 by 5.0m, which was possibly associated with the castle.
Earthworks surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (RDL) 13 May 1964
Field Visit (24 January 1983)
No change. The compartmented building on the N side of the promontory is clearly domestic and is probably a farmstead.
Visited by OS (JRL) 24 January 1983
Aerial Photography (4 June 2021)
HES Archaeological Survey undertook a photographic survey of Glengarnock Castle on 4 June 2020 in response to a request from Planning, Consents and Advice.
The survey consisted of 67 oblique aerial photographs and 172 nadir images. The external and general oblique shots were taken from a DJI Inspire 2 carrying a DJI X7 camera with a 35mm or 16mm lens while the internal shots were captured with a DJI Phantom 4 Pro + using an FC6310 24mm camera. The images were archived in both raw (DNG) and tiff format. The nadir imagery was captured as a series of overlapped jpegs using a pre-programmed flight.
Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (GFG) 4 June 2021.
