The hospital is constructed on land which was formerly part of the southern portions of the Eglinton Castle Estate.

[1] The hospital, which was designed by William Reid and commissioned by the now defunct Ayr County Council, was built from 1936 and was opened in stages from 1941 and became fully operational by 1944.

[3] On 1 December 2005 the maternity building was flooded by a burst water tank.

The flooding threatened the special care baby unit and took fire crews from Dreghorn, Kilwinning and Kilmarnock 3 hours to control.

However Ayrshire paediatric services were centralised at Crosshouse in July 2006[6][7] while maternity services moved to the new Ayrshire Maternity Unit at Crosshouse Hospital in August 2006.