Castle and Barony of Robertland

The Castle and Barony of Robertland stands in rolling farmland near Stewarton in East Ayrshire. A ruined medieval keep once rose six storeys high beside the Swinzie Burn, its moat fed by the burn’s waters. The Cunninghame family held the barony for centuries until the Montgomeries burned the castle after the murder of the 4th Earl of Eglinton in 1586. By 1800 the remaining stones formed the walls of a walled garden at Robertland House across the burn. Archaeologists in 1962 found the castle’s courtyard walls still standing on the steep south bank. The site is worth visiting for its layered history and surviving fragments. Timothy Pont noted the castle as ‘Over Robertland’ in the 17th century, while the garden wall bears the date 1597 and the words ‘Vita post fine eraverit’. Carved stones from the moat, including a gargoyle and a mason’s mark, are built into the garden wall. A dovecot once stood among the outbuildings, and the estate was enclosed with hedges and ditches in about 1764. The present house, designed by David Hamilton in 1820, replaced an earlier six-storey mansion. Visitors find the walled garden with its historic stones and inscriptions beside the burn. The remains of the castle’s retaining walls and courtyard outline can be traced on the steep slope. The 1820 house overlooks the site from the north bank, its pedimented front still intact. Remnants of the old access road and the later Robertland Bridge show how the estate was reached. The suffragette fire of 1914 left its mark, yet the rear wing survived and was rebuilt.