Carrick — the old district between the Doon and the Galloway border, with Girvan at its centre — was Kennedy country from the 1300s to the 1700s. The family rose with Robert the Bruce, whose mother was Countess of Carrick, and by the fifteenth century a rhyme had it that between Wigtown and the Doon, the Kennedys ruled.
That dominance is the reason there is a ruined tower every few miles along this coast, and it is the single most useful thing to know if you want the castles here to make sense rather than just be scenery.
The feud
The trouble was that there were two branches, and they hated each other. The main line held Cassillis and Dunure; the junior line held Bargany and Ardstinchar. Through the late 1500s they fought for control of the district with a violence that was extreme even by the standards of the time.
The notorious episode came in 1570, when Gilbert, 4th Earl of Cassillis, kidnapped the Commendator of Crossraguel Abbey and roasted him over a fire in a vault at Dunure until he signed over the abbey lands. He was rescued — by Thomas Kennedy of Bargany, who stormed the castle not out of chivalry but because he wanted the lands himself. The Earl was ordered to pay his victim a pension for life.
The feud ran on until a Bargany Kennedy was killed near Maybole in 1601. The main line survived, prospered, and eventually built Culzean — which is why the greatest family in Carrick left a ruin at Dunure and a palace ten miles down the coast.
The castles, from Girvan
| Castle | From Girvan | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Dunure | 17 miles | Free, open access — the original seat |
| Culzean | 11 miles | Paid (NTS) — Adam's masterpiece, 1777–92 |
| Crossraguel Abbey | 11 miles | The prize; check current access |
| Maybole Castle | 13 miles | The town house and family church |
| Cassillis House | near Dalrymple | Private — the main seat for centuries |
| Baltersan | near Crossraguel | View from the A77; a 1584 tower ruin |
| Turnberry | 6 miles | Free — the Bruce birthplace, inherited by the Kennedys |
| Ardstinchar | 13 miles | Free — the Bargany line's stronghold |
| Bargany | 4 miles | Gardens, occasional opening |
| Carleton | 7 miles | Free — Cathcart tower in the Kennedy orbit |
| Killochan | 4 miles | Private; view from the road |
| Knockdolian | 11 miles | Kennedy tower in the Stinchar valley |
Ailsa Craig belongs in the list too: it is still held by the Marquess of Ailsa, the Kennedy chief, whose title comes from the island itself.
Seeing them
In one day you can take in Dunure, Culzean, Crossraguel and Maybole — see the Carrick castle coast day trip. In another, Turnberry, Killochan, Bargany, Carleton and Ardstinchar, most of them free and several only visible from the road.
The exhibition at Culzean and the McKechnie Institute in Girvan both tell parts of the story. See also the history of Girvan.
