Dalmore (NS4344023291) was a country house and small estate in the Parish of Stair, East Ayrshire, on the River Ayr, East Ayrshire, Scotland[1] The relatively small estate of Dalmore was originally part of the Barony of Gaitgirth (Gadgirth).

[3][4] The property was included in the estate of James who died intestate and was claimed by an aunt, Elizabeth McKie as sole next of kin.

William Dunn died in 1868 and the estate was managed by his widow until their daughter inherited in 1876, having married John Cuninghame Montgomerie in the same year.

[5] An unusual joint memorial to the Herons, McKies and Dunns of Dalmore is located in the Stair cemetery close to the church.

[8] The owners clearly had problems with the chimneys and smoke as can be seen from the highly unusual presence of metal pipe vents.

[9] Dalmore House became uninhabitable in the early 1960s, recognised as such after John Montgomerie moved into the property with his new and much younger wife, his ex-secretary.

The house was found to be riddled with dry rot and was condemned; John and his wife moved out and went to live in Sandfield Road, Ayr.

[10] After the fire in April 1969 (Tucker states 1958[11]) the stone walls of the house, the abandoned and ruinous entrance lodge and the still occupied stable cottages remain.

In 1789 a Mr Smith of Mauchline held the lease to one of the quarries; possibly the one situated near Stair Wood, beside the Glenstang Burn, as marked on the OS map.

[20] Three buildings made up the Dalmore Mill complex, one of which is two-storeys high and partly unroofed due to vandalism in 2003.

[21] The lade is still visible as a shallow ditch running from the river to the mill, a sluice originally controlling the water flow.

A sizeable and unusual sculpture of a sheaf of corn with the name 'W Heron, 1821' is located on the mill wall, part of which was rebuilt after a German plane jettisoned incendiary bombs onto it in 1942.

In the 1820s it is recorded that the brothers were running a Hone stone factory at Milton Mill and it is thought that the Smith brothers diversified as Box Makers and established the famous Mauchline Ware manufacture in the village of Mauchline because they wished to have their own source of cases for their 'Water of Ayr Stones'.

[17] The stone from the aforementioned Dalmore Quarry was dressed and polished at the mill which was the property of William Dun Esq.

Old milestones were used to help protect the bridge piers from the scouring action of the river and these can still be seen at times of low water.

Robert Burns recorded the event in one of his songs; William was apparently trying to impress the local landowners to increase his chances of being elected as MP for Ayrshire.

Montgomery, the owner and last manager of the hone stone mine, interviewed at the site on 16 October 2010, the extant mine tubs in Dalmore Quarry were brought there a few years ago by the BBC for a television documentary about coal-mining during the nineteenth century.

For the documentary the broken waste stone dumped over the sides of the quarry was sprayed with black paint so that it looked like a huge stack of coal in the film.