The ancient lands of Willowyard,[1] Willieyeards,[1] Williyard or Willizeards were part of the holdings of the Regality of Kilwinning, Barony of Beith, and Bailiary of Cuninghame.

[2] The manor house still survives as part of a business premises and the nearby industrial estate and whisky bond carry the name 'Willowyards'.

[2] By 1833 William Wilson (son of Janet Simson) had purchased his ancestral lands of Willowyards and his nephew, Alexander Shedden of Morishil later inherited.

By the end of the 18th century Willowyards was a well established farmstead and the Edinburgh Advertiser describes it as: consisting of about 175 English acres of arable land, well enclosed and subdivided into fifteen fields, and let by one lease to three substantial tenants for 19 years at £130 per annum.

Upon this property there is a good house, and garden stocked with fruit trees, a malt mill and an elegant court of offices newly erected.

There are about ten acres of wood and a good deal of timber on this farm; and thriving belts of planting surround the greatest part of it.

[6] It is likely that William Simson built the surviving mansion house of two storeys and garrets in the early 1770s[1] and when constructed it was one of the most luxurious habitations in the parish, set in picturesque surroundings.

[5] The rubble walls of the mansion house were formerly harled and the window and angle margins left as exposed dressed stone; the roof was originally thatched.

[7] A farmhouse is shown marked as Mains-Hamilton on the OS map of 1856 together with an L-plan outbuilding, which may now form part of the former coachhouse at 'The Meadows' on Arran Crescent.

The Muir family owned the Bath Lane Tannery, near the Beith Health centre of today (2011) and built the Bark Mill.

Dr McCusker, a GP based in Glasgow, owned Mains House at the time of WW2, followed by Mr Dewar, prior to its purchase and demolition.

As stated, Willowyard House still stands, converted into offices serving a heat transfer manufacturing company, Chemtec UK Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Armstrong-Chemtec Group.

[12] The main railway line from Ayr to Glasgow runs below the industrial estate and forms the eastern margin of the loch in places.