[3] Dobie records that .."foundations, where undermined, have been secured; wasted portions of the walls taken down and substantially restored, the whole of which have been carefully pointed with mortar; while the interior has been cleared of the rubbish and soil accumulated during more than a hundred years of abandonment and degradation";[4] the structure still continues to deteriorate although without these repairs little would have survived.

[8] The estate was sold by the creditors to Cunningham of Robertland, however, the son was unable to retain the lands and Adam Watt, Clerk to the Signet obtained them before selling them in 1630 to the husband of the heiress of Kilbirne, the Honourable Patrick Lindsay.

[2] It is described in the New Statistical Account of Scotland (1845) as follows: "The ruins of Glengarnock Castle stand on a precipitous ridge or knoll, overhanging the Garnock, about two miles (3 km) north of Kilbirnie.

This brawling stream skirts two sides of the knoll; and as the ravine through which it flows is fully eighty feet in depth, the position, under the ancient system of warfare, must have combined security with the means of easy defence.

[2] The New Statistical Account continues: "The ground-plan of this ancient stronghold could, until lately, be easily traced; and as a portion of the exterior walls still remains nearly the original height, its appearance when entire may, with little difficulty, be yet shadowed out.

From notes and measurements taken a few years ago, it may be described in general terms, as having consisted of a quadrilateral tower, with a court of less elevated buildings extending from its east side.

One of the windows overlooks the rugged chasm through which murmurs the Garnock, and from two narrow apertures facing the east, the eye may yet revel over a beautiful extent of the district bearing the same name as the old lords of the castle.

"[12] John Smith records in the 1890s that a substantial midden had built up below the castle over the years and this was largely formed from ashes from the typical local low quality coal, together with broken fragments of tiles and patterned glass with chipped and roughened edges.