A most extensive and imposing building was intended, however financial problems and his unexpected death resulted the abandonment of the original design; today's structure represents the remnants of the unfinished mansion.

[2] The Statistical Account of 1791-99 states that "...the house known by the name of the Place, was poffeffed by them, where the late Chancellor had laid the foundation of a very extenfive building, and executed part of it; but from embarraffments of fortune, from which he expected to be relieved by Government, in whofe service, he incurred them, was obliged to give up the plan.

The seeming ruins are nothing more than the remnant of the walls of an elegant structure which was in the course of erection during the lifetime of the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, William, ninth 9th Earl of Glencairn.

[8] Hume[9] describes The Place as being built in around 1620, with a T-plan and a turnpike stair leading to the upper levels in the projecting jamb.

In July 1520 Lord Semple led a raid on Kilmaurs and is accused of wrongful, violent and masterful spoilation of David Cunninghame and his servants and followers by seizing his place, houssis and Kirkland of Kilmawris.

[20] In 1762 she writes in a letter to her son-in-law James Moray of Abercairney that her son (the tenth earl) has given her Auchans House and that she was about to repair it.

[26] The Place and Morton Park, part of the old estate, was gifted to the people of Kilmaurs by Lady Sophia Montgomerie, daughter of the 14th Earl of Eglinton; she died in 1942.

'[30] One summer the Carmel almost dried up, but the Maak's well did not, and locals farmers brought their carts up the riverbed to collect water in barrels, etc.

The modern view is that the name Kilmaurs itself is derived from the Gaelic Cil Mor Ais, meaning 'Hill of the Great Cairn',[31] rather than being the 'Cell' of Saint Maurs.

The Cunningham chiefs had a much reduced connection with the barony of Kilmaurs after 1484 when Finlaystone became the de facto family seat.

William Cunningham, 9th Earl of Glencairn was at first a loyal supporter of Charles I and for this reason he was forced to forfeit his title to the Scottish Parliament; but in time he realized the possibility of Scotland being drawn into the feud between Charles and his Parliament in London, upon which his support for this absolute monarch quickly diminished.

William's title was restored and following the execution of Charles I, he fought with the Highland clans against General Monck when Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland.

The Statistical Account of Scotland 1791–1799 Vol IX p 365-6 (Kilmaurs) states that : Mr William Ralston, factor to the Earl of Eglinton, lives in this parish, and possesses a large farm.

Under the influence of such gentlemen, agriculture must flourish... William Ralston married Elizabeth Dun on 5 October 1783 in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire.

[36] His marriage to Elizabeth Dun seems to conflict with the report in the History of the County of Ayr p453 where it is stated he married his cousin Agnes Ralston.

A Major Ralston was in the group that witnessed the murder of the 10th Earl of Eglinton by gauger Mungo Campbell at Ardrossan on 24 October 1769.

The word 'Place' in Scots refers to a landed proprietor's mansion house,[41] however in academic and practical terms it is a larger building which surrounds a central courtyard.

[42] The structure consists of a main block lying roughly east–west, with a stair-wing projecting in the centre of the West wall with crow step gabling.

It has two stories and an attic, with 'modern buildings' forming the former farm outbuildings although the west facing gable end may be older.

In 1912 the remains of an avenue opening on the Townend and leading circuitously to the old frontage could still be discerned in the field adjoining the main road; Cuthbertson records a few of these beech trees being present in 1945.

[52] The 1788–91 Eglinton estate plans of holdings in Kilmaurs show an entrance running straight up to The Place from near the bridge over the Carmel Water on the Kilmaurs Road; the formal pleasure gardens are illustrated as a square of three by three equal size squares with paths dividing them up.

[51] The bridge over the Carmel at Fenwick Road was built to provide an access when the front entrance was moved to the north facing side.

[57] The Statistical Account of 1791-99 says of the Earl of Glencairn "that noble family then resided in this parifh, where they had a houfe, fome fmall ruins of which yet remain on the farm which is called Jock's-thorn, near to the road leading from Stewarton to Kilmarnock, ..."[3] Adamson relates in 1875 that the ancient castle was in the vicinity of Jock's or Jack's Thorn farm, and indeed several old people from Kilmaurs in 1875 remembered playing amongst the ruined remnants of masonry which occupied the site of this old castle of the Cunninghams.

[59] Dobie in 1874 that the old baronial residence was about a mile South-East of Kilmaurs and ruins could still be pointed out on the farm of Jock's Thorn.

[61] Stewarton shows this situation with Corsehill Castle as the manorial residence and the Templehouse fortalice as the place for the protection of the tenantry.

Elizabeth informed her husband of the minister’s approaches and reluctantly they both wrote letters asking the Rev Inglis not to call upon them and to desist.

[70] A meeting was held by mainly the menfolk of Kilmaurs and the result was a finding of a miscarriage of justice and the Presbytery were thanked for their involvement.

[71] The Barony of Kilmaurs was composed of the lands of Buston (now Buiston), Fleuris (now Floors), Lambroughton, Whyrrig, now Wheatrig and previously Quhytrige,[72] and Southwick or Southuck (now South Hook).

[73] It was a large 3-storey and attic, 6-bay rubble building, on a T-plan, with a kiln with roof-ridge ventilator at one end for drying grain.

The kiln (was ast used in 1946 and consisted of a firebox burning smokeless anthracite or coke below an inverted flue; the heat was directed up to the perforated cast-iron tiles of the drying floor.