" A Saunter roon Stinstin"

[killiejok]

The date for my paddling pool photo is 1960-61 as I was 5 or 6.

I have a Stevenston Holiday Guide booklet which has the same photo as posted by Ross Sturgeon and Little Plum. I have estimated the guide book as a 1967 publication as the foreword was written by Provost J Forde MBE JP and an internet search gave me 1967 as the year his MBE was announced. Nylon works construction had started but plant was due to open in 1968.

I now wonder if the original fountain was damaged and replaced with the cream one.

[little plum]

Here's how I remember it in a slightly earlier photo.

[killiejok]

I reckoned that picture was possibly earlier than mine and thats why I wondered if there was some sort of repair/replacement happening when my was taken. The blue base looks shorter than the base in the two b&w pictures and could simply be a temporary cap to allow the pool to stay open while the fountain was installed or repaired.

[little plum]

killiejok, when the pool first opened the fountain was cream coloured, the pool floor was sky blue, round the edges it was cream coloured and the iron work on the perimeter wall was painted with red lead.
Sadly it wasn't long before it and the new kiosk at the swings were vandalised. I'm now wondering if the grey hut might well have been a workman's hut when all the windows in the kiosk were bricked up.

[dreamer]

Hi all,

I'm back from having the house extended. Murder-polis while it was going on, but really pleased with the result; attic-extension to create new bedroom. that's why I've hardly been around this last 3 - 4 weeks.

I'm not so sure that these gates are the Kerlaw gates. On the left-hand side at Kerlaw was the gatehouse. I first thought that they were from Mayville on the High Road, (still a possibility for me), but they could also be from Hillerhurst. I'm not completely convinced yet.

JD.

Bit late joining in on this one. The gates are definitely that of Kerelaw House, I have a postcard with what appears to be the exact same photo and the caption indeed states "Kerelaw Gates, Stevenston" or words to that effect. I believe the stone walls to the left and right of the pillars are still in existence right next to West Lodge on Kerelaw Road, on the road that would have lead up to Kerelaw House. I have a recent photo somewhere, will see if I can try and dig it out. In the meantime you can see the location of the entrance on Google Street View here, zoom in a bit and you'll get a view very close to the old photo, you can just see the left hand wall sticking out, the right hand wall is mostly hidden under bushes. It looks like the metal bars were either replaced or cut short as they are no where near the height they were in the old photo, possibly when the school was built?

[dreamer]

Here we are, Kerelaw Gates, date unknown:


And the same location in 2008:

[morag]

If I could be granted immunity...there'd be several bodies.

[calleytwo]

There would be more than several if we could get to the civic vandals for what they have done to Saltcoats! Wee Ali

[down south]

Another look at Sandra Mair's " the Gates of Kerelaw " ,from 1963, as a further comparison of how utterly that scene has changed:



I also quoted earlier in this topic from an article about the history of Kerelaw estate , particularly the castle. While we're here again I thought I might add the complete article; once again with full acknowledgements to the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, who produced it somewhen in the early 1970s.

You'll see mention in it of proposals at the time that it might be demolished, because of the risk to youngsters who insisted on playing there. ( Though nobody as far as I know ever suggested that of Ardrossan Castle, where there were similar goings-on ! )

I'm aware that the house is long gone, but I'm not entirely clear whether Kerelaw Castle IS in fact still there; the Stevenston Town Trail suggests it is, but recent dark mutterings from Morag suggest it might not be. Was part of it cleared away perhaps ?

Susan


HISTORY OF KERELAW CASTLE

Due to its ruinous and dangerous condition it is possible that Kerelaw Castle, Stevenston, may have to be demolished. Parents in the adjacent housing scheme are concerned that accidents could occur to children playing in the ruins, and it is naturally felt that it is preferable to sacrifice a castle than a child.

Somewhat surprisingly perhaps Kerelaw Castle is not officially listed as an ancient monument worthy of preservation, but its history is naturally bound up with that of the town and it contains some unusual features worth comment before it disappears.

Probably the castle was built around the end of the 12th century – about the same time as Ardrossan Castle – when grants of lands were given by Sir Richard de Morville, lord of Cuninghame, to the Barclays in Ardrossan and the Loccards in Stevenston. From a member of the latter family, Stephen Loccard , the town is supposed to have derived its name, and it is believed that he built the castle originally.

No local records or accounts of the castle attempt to explain the name Kerelaw, which was spelled "Kerila" at one period, but it is probably straightforward enough and derived from the Pictish "caer" meaning a fort – the fort on the hill.

From Stephen Loccard the lands passed to the family of one Duncan Campbell who was granted a charter of the lands of Loudon and "Stivenstoune" by King Robert 1, and from the Campbells to the Cunninghams, of the family of the Earl of Glencairn.

It is known that previous to 1488, by which time the castle was in possession of the Cunninghams, Kerelaw was partially destroyed by fire by minions of the Montgomeries. The two families were carrying on a feud – which is another story – but the Cunninghams had their revenge half a century later when they set fire to and destroyed the enemy's castle of Eglinton.

Whoever originally had Kerelaw built, successive owners enlarged it, altered it and rebuilt parts of it, and an unusual feature of the architecture was the inclusion of pointed Gothic windows in a wall of the great hall. So far as is known no other Scottish castle of the period had such windows – which after all were not in keeping with a fortress – and they are of similar style to those in the Abbey of Kilwinning.

It is known that Alexander Cunningham, one of the Earls of Glencairn, was appointed commendator of Kilwinning Abbey after the Reformation, and as he probably lived at Kerila for much of the time it is conjectured that the great hall of the castle was built by him with windows to emulate the abbey. It seems undisputed that the walls of the great hall were at one time ornamented with the coats of arms of the Scottish nobility taken from Kilwinning Abbey after it was destroyed at the Reformation.

It was also one of the Earls of Glencairn who in 1545 granted leases of plots of ground known as the Nine Yards, to nine Saltcoats fishermen on condition that every spring they would carry the Earl's furniture from the creek of Saltcoats to his summer residence further up the firth, and bring it back again in the autumn when the family returned to Kerelaw.

The Montgomerie - Cunningham feud continued for several centuries and resulted in the death of at least one Earl of Eglinton who was murdered in 1586, and of Alexander Cunningham, Abbot of Kilwinning, who was shot dead in 1591.

In the 17th century the whole barony of Stevenston passed into the possession of Sir Robert Cunningham, physician in Scotland to King Charles II, and on his death his nephew Robert succeeded him. He was a man of enterprise and vision and was responsible for expanding mining in the locality and for the construction of Saltcoats harbour. However the expense of subsidising these schemes proved too much and he was forced to sell part of his estate,including Kerelaw Castle, to John Hamilton, of Grange estate, near Kilmarnock.

Mr Hamilton preferred his castle and lands to be known by the name of his former estate, and he and his family dropped the name Kerelaw and adopted that of Grange by which the Stevenston castle and policies continued to be known for the next couple of hundred years.

The most famous member of the Hamilton family, although his connection with Stevenston is tenuous, was General Alexander Hamilton whose father was the fourth son of John Hamilton of Grange and who emigrated to the West Indies. The General was the man who framed the American constitution, and was author of Washington's farewell address , which was regarded as one of the best written State papers in the English language. His town house in New York was called Grange, and his portrait appears on American ten-dollar bills.

As the old castle began to deteriorate, the Hamiltons built a modern mansion house on adjoining land about the end of the 18th century, and from then the castle ceased to be used and gradually fell into ruins.

References to Grange remain in street names and locations in Stevenston, but when the property again changed hands in the 19th century the new owners reintroduced the name Kerelaw for mansion and castle. The house remained occupied until a few years ago, and on its purchase by the Corporation of Glasgow the mansion was demolished to make room for the approved school for boys which now stands on the site and which perpetuates the name of Kerelaw.

[morag]

I think there might be a wall, still, mutter, mutter. Grrr! I loved that place and actually got inside the manor house..

[dreamer]

The castle ruin is still intact, see the Wikipedia entry here for some photos. The most recent photos were taken in 2006 (and 2008) but it pretty much looks exactly the same 5 years on, although the large tree that was in the middle of the ruin has since been chopped down, not sure if this was the same tree that David Livingstone was supposed to have sent from Africa long ago?

[GEODGC]

I`ll take a couple of photos of the castle as it is today and post them on the thread sometime over the next week.