Lands of Lainshaw

The Lands of Lainshaw lie in Strathannick, East Ayrshire, above the Annick Water. A later mansion, Lainshaw House, now stands on the site of much older Lainshaw Castle. The original castle may have stood at Law Mount, granted in the 12th century to Godfrey de Ross.

The estate was once the favoured seat of the Stuarts and passed through many notable hands. Mary, Queen of Scots, gave it to Mary Livingstone, one of her four attendants. The Montgomeries held it after the Homes, and William Cunninghame, a ‘Tobacco Lord’, bought it in 1779. Sir Walter Montgomerie-Cuninghame lost his fortune after the American War of Independence.

Visitors find the house restored as private apartments, with traces of its past still visible. A ha-ha runs beside the old driveway, once surprising walkers with an unseen drop. Nearby stands a whale-bone arch made from bones found where the Annick and Glazert meet. The estate’s woodlands, once called Anderson’s Plantation, still shelter rare plants such as Bird’s Nest Orchids. Stone bridges and boundary walls mark the edges of the former grounds, while Castle-salt hints at the estate’s stores of salted foods.