Hunterston Castle,

West Kilbride West Kilbride ( gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Iar) is a village and historic parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland, on the west coast by the Firth of Clyde, looking across the Firth of Clyde to Goat Fell and the Isle of Arran. West Kilbride and adjoi ...

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east a ...

, Scotland is the historic home of the

lairds Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in a ...

Clan Hunter Clan Hunter is a Scottish clan.Clan Hunter Profile
scotclans.com. Retrieved 9 Octobe ...

. The keep dates from the late 15th, or early 16th centuries, while the attached manor house is of the 17th century. The estate was granted to the Hunters by

David I of Scotland David I or Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim (Modern: ''Daibhidh I mac haoilChaluim''; – 24 May 1153) was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians from 1113 to 1124 and later King of Scotland from 1124 to 1153. The youngest son of Malco ...

in the 12th century, and the heads of the clan have lived on the estate for the following 900 years. The castle is a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * ...

History

The original Hunters were

Norman French Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...

in origin, who were granted the lands around Hunterston by King David I in the 12th century. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, the chief of Clan Hunter was granted the hereditary title of Royal Huntsman. The family has owned the castle ever since, although much of the estate was compulsorily purchased by the government in the 20th century to enable the construction of the Hunterston A and Hunterston B nuclear power stations.

Architecture and description

The tower dates from the late 15th, or early 16th, centuries, although earlier buildings existed on the site. In the 17th century, a house was added to the tower to provide additional accommodation. In the 19th century, this was considered insufficient and a Neoclassical house, Hunterston House, was built to the north of the castle. In 1926

Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, for new work in Scots Baronial and Got ...

undertook an extensive restoration of the castle. It is a Category A listed building.

Public Access

Between 1974 and 1985 the castle was open to the general public daily however due to new rules and legislation by the nearby nuclear power stations they felt that having too many people in the nearby area would be a security risk but also impossible to evacuate them quickly in event of an emergency occurring at the stations. After this the castle was accessible on a case by case advance request visit only until 1994 when the castle became off limits to the public and only Clan Hunter members were allowed to visit. In the 2000s the castle was open one day a year as part of the opendays event, however this still caused problems due to the vicinity of the power stations so it was quietly dropped from future events and now reverted to Clan members only. The castle can still be viewed externally by anyone passing by as its next to a public right of way and

sustrans Sustrans is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United K ...

cycle route.

Notes

External links

Hunterston Castle

References

* {{cite book , last1 = Close , first1 = Rob , last2 = Riches , first2 = Anne , title = Ayrshire and Arran , series = The Buildings Of Scotland , year = 2012 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TGGkuAAACAAJ&q=Ayrshire+and+Arran , publisher =

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univers ...

, location = Newhaven and London , isbn = 978-0-300-14170-2 Castles in North Ayrshire Category A listed buildings in North Ayrshire Listed castles in Scotland 15th-century establishments in Scotland