The Lands of Roughwood

Roughwood is a farm near Beith in North Ayrshire, once the site of a small tower castle. The name comes from an old Scots word for rough or uneven ground. The lands once stretched across 245 acres between Beith and Dalry parishes. In the early 18th century they were poor, mossy and clay-covered, with no proper roads or farm buildings. The Hammills owned the estate before passing it to the Sheddens in the 18th century. The old tower castle had a coat of arms showing the Hammill family’s quartered shield. The farm’s history includes Baron Courts held on the site in the 1720s and 1740s. A simple fortified keep once stood there, with a ground-floor entrance and a first-floor hall with a large fireplace. Roughwood was involved in flax processing, with a retting pond and a lint mill nearby. The farmhouse still has an unusual sloping floor that may have been a heckling shed for flax fibres. Old maps from 1654 to 1895 show the site changing from a dwelling to a farm with limestone kilns and shelterbelts. Visitors find old farm buildings with unusual features like owl holes and carved stones. Two owl holes allow barn owls to hunt rats and mice, while a triangular hole is rare. Carvings of a fox or cat and a falcon, the Ralston family crest, appear on the northern side of the farm. The farm’s surroundings include the Spiersland Way, an old track now used by farm vehicles. Nearby, the Powgree Burn and Kersland Glen show traces of past industries like flax retting and limestone quarrying. The land still carries the marks of centuries of farming and family history.