Lainshaw Castle

Ayrshire: About 1 mile south-west of Stewarton, on minor roads west of B769, just north of Annick Water, at Lainshaw House.

Ruin or site   NS 410453   OS: 64   KA3 3AP

Site of 15th-century castle and tower. Lainshaw House, a classical mansion of three storeys built around 1800, and given a Tudor-Gothic style extension in 1824, incorporates part of the old castle. The house was latterly used as an old people’s home, then became derelict but was converted into flats in 2008.
  The place does not appear to be marked on Blaeu’s map of Cunningham, although ‘Sivertoun Cast’ is at about the right location. Sivertoun is presumably Stewarton, so this is probably Lainshaw, unless there was also a tower at Stewarton.
  This was a property of the Stewarts, which passed to the Montgomerys in the 16th century, and Sir Neil Montgomery of Lainshaw is on record in 1545 and was slain during a feud two years later. James Montgomery, younger of Lainshaw, had a ratification in 1696. The property was sold to William Cunningham in 1779, one of Glasgow’s ‘tobacco lords’. Descendants of the family held the property until 1947.
  The building is said to have a ‘Green Lady’, reputed to be the apparition of Elizabeth Cunningham, wife of Montgomery of Lainshaw. She may have been involved in the plot which resulted in the murder of the Hugh Montgomery, 4th Earl of Eglinton, in 1586, along with Cunningham of Clonbeith and Cunningham of Robertland. The ghost is said to have been witnessed wearing a green dress and carrying a candle, and the rustle of her dress has also reportedly been heard.