Stair House

Stair House is a manor house standing on a bend of the River Ayr in the small settlement of Stair. Its L-shaped core is built of rough stone and rises two or three storeys above the ground. Three round towers project from the walls, and the top of the north-west tower still shows the pigeon holes once used by birds kept for food and sport. The oldest part is a tower built late in the 16th or early in the 17th century. Later in the 17th century the Dalrymple family of Stair enlarged the house, possibly in 1673, to create a family seat. By the middle of the 19th century parts of the building were ruinous while other rooms remained in use. Visitors can walk around the exterior and see the three towers and the river loop beside the house. The rough stone walls and simple shapes give a plain but solid impression. The pigeon holes in the north-west tower mark the building’s unusual dual purpose as both dwelling and dovecote.