Ayrshire: About 2.5 miles north-west of Kilmarnock, on minor road east of A735, south of B751, just south of Irvine Water, just east of Kilmaurs.
Private NS 412411 OS: 70 KA3 2RG
Kilmaurs Place is a T-plan house, dating from 1620, which has been much altered with the insertion of larger windows. The gables are corbiestepped, and the walls harled and whitewashed. The
projecting wing of the T contains a turnpike stair. The building has corbiestepped gables, and a ruined adjacent block, probably predating the house, has a vaulted basement.
‘Kilmaers’ is marked on Blaeu’s map of Cunningham and is depicted as a tower in enclosed policies.
Kilmaurs was a property of the Cunninghams from the 13th century, after they had helped Alexander III to win the Battle of Largs in 1263. In 1413 William Cunningham, Lord Kilmaurs, endowed a
collegiate church [NS 414408] at Kilmaurs. The Glencairn Aisle houses a carved 17th-century monument to William, 7th Earl.
The family became Earls of Glencairn in 1488, although Alexander, 1st Earl, was slain at the Battle of Sauchieburn the same year (also see Finlaystone and Maxwelton). The lands were sold in the 18th century to the Montgomerys of Eglinton.
There appears to have been an earlier castle of the Cunninghams at Jocksthorn [NS 420408], although little now remains and it was ruinous by 1608. This site is apparently not marked on
Blaeu.