Carnell House is a mansion house and estate near the village of Hurlford about south-east of Kilmarnock in South Ayrshire, Scotland, from Glasgow. Carnell was previously known as Cairn Hill and dates back to 1276. The house is set within a 2000-acre Estate which is divided into gardens, woodlands and farms. The present form of the house dates back to 1843, although the earlier towers adjoin the newer additions. The house is home to the Findlay Family whose ancestry includes William Wallace. Ferrier-Hamilton, Hamilton-Findlay. Findlays of Carnell Memorial, Craigie

It was built by the Wallace Family and in 1750 was referred to as ‘Cairnhill’ on General Roy's map of 1750. Colonel John Ferrier Hamilton later made considerable improvements to the Estate and in 1843 he commissioned

William Burn William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival,often referred t ...

to build a new house. Georgina Findlay-Hamilton, John's granddaughter, upon inheriting the estate in 1904, made further alterations and was responsible for initially cultivating the 10 acre gardens the estate has today. It then passed to her son-in-law and daughter, Commander and Mrs J B Findlay and then to her son John R Findlay in 1965. Garden House was built in 1973 inside the walled garden. The house is now owned by John's second son Michael who usually resides there with his family. The

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

adjoining the house dates from the 15th century; it rises to three

storeys A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). Th ...

and a

garret A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally, small, dismal, and cramped, with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a bu ...

, which has a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

corbelled-out. The

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

has a wide kitchen fireplace.Coventry, Martin (1997) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p.104

References

External links

Official siteRobert Burns and the Carnell Estate Lime Kilns, Fiveways, South Ayrshire.Researching the Life and Times of Robert Burns Researcher's site.
Country houses in East Ayrshire Houses completed in 1843 Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 1843 establishments in Scotland {{Scotland-struct-stub