Keirs Castle
Tower House (Medieval)
Site Name Keirs Castle
Classification Tower House (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Keir's
Canmore ID 42580
Site Number NS40NW 1
NGR NS 43038 08039
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/42580
- Council East Ayrshire
- Parish Straiton (Cumnock And Doon Valley)
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Cumnock And Doon Valley
- Former County Ayrshire
NS40NW 1 4303 0804.
(NS 4303 0804) Keirs Castle (NR) (remains of)
OS 1:10000 map (1979)
A ruined fortalice: nothing but a single ruinous wall about 30ft in height and 9ft in thickness. Its original conformation (square) is still discernible from the course of the fallen walls. It is said that Wallace beseiged it and was driven from it.
Name Book 1856
At this site is a tumbled mass of grass-covered masonry, maximum height 2.7m, situated on a level platform with steep slopes to Keirs Burn and Keirs Glen. No plan of the original structure, or its period, can be deduced from the remains, which, from the small area they cover (some 14.0m by 10.0m) appears to be those of a simple tower.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (JFC) 20 July 1954
No change to the previous report. It is likely that masonry from the castle has been built into the nearby barn walls.
Visited by OS (JRL) 18 September 1980
Field Visit (August 1982)
Keirs Castle NS 430 080 NS40NW
A grass-covered mound of tumbled masonry to the rear of the derelict farmhouse of Keirs is all that remains of this castle.
RCAHMS 1983, visited August 1982
(Name Book, Ayr, No. 59, p. 8; Paterson 1863-6, ii, 460, 479-82).
