Thorntoun house and estate
The old Thorntoun mansion house was demolished in the late 1960s, leaving the West Lodge, some of the home farm outbuildings, the stables and the walled garden as 'memorials' to the ancient history of the site.
In 1823 the historian Robertson[1] describes "Thornton" as being "situated about half way betwixt Irvine and Kilmarnock: the manor or place (palace) is an elegant modern mansion, set down on the brow of a considerable height, overlooking, from amid its fine old timber and more recent plantings, a great expanse of rich country."
In 1866 James Paterson, another historian, brought up locally, gives 'Thorntoun' as "This property, situated to the west of Busbie (Knockentiber), is about 300 acres (1.2 km2) in extent.
The estate is first recorded as belonging to Murthhaw or Murchaw de Montgomery, who is mentioned in the Ragman Rolls (a list of those loyal to Edward I of England) of 1296.
A Johne of Montgomery of Thornetoun is mentioned in a legal document of 1482, forfeiting the estate to Lord Home by order of King James V. By the beginning of the seventeenth century Thorntoun had passed into the ownership of another ancient and renowned Ayrshire family, the Mures (or Muirs), a branch of the Mures of Rowallan Castle near Kilmaurs.
James Mure, Burgess of Glasgow, had married Margaret, a daughter of Robert Ross of Thorntoun on 27 June 1607 and inherited the property through his spouse.
[2] Archibald Muir of Thorntoun was knighted by King William III in 1698 and his only daughter, Margaret, married John Cuninghame of Caddel, in the Parish of Ardrossan, in 1699.
Archibald succeeded his father and John became a successful merchant in Lisbon (Portugal), eventually retiring to live at Carmelbank (previously called Mote), adjacent to Thorntoun.
John recovered to serve on board the 74 gun, HMS Montague, at the great Caribbean naval victory of the Battle of the Saintes against the French who were commanded by Admiral Count François Joseph Paul de Grasse.
[5] The combined rental income of Thorntoun and Carmelbank was £2,640 12s 0d., the second highest in the parish, only exceeded by Robert Morris Pollock-Morris of Craig house.
[6] Located in the Cuninghame of Thorntoun Papers in the National Archives of Scotland is the American Revolution journal of Captain John Peebles (1739–1823), a grenadier officer of the 42nd (Royal Highland Regiment or Black Watch).
to halt Upon the word forward, in forming, the Divisions to run up in Order.Here are a few extracts from John's American War of Independence journal: Monday 22d.
June rain in the night The Army... moved on to the Black Horse a small Village about 7 or 8 miles from Mount holly & Encampd in two lines facing NW—Genl.
Thomson's map of 1828 gives some detail, showing two entrances and driveways, with substantial woodlands and an enclosed park on the Springside boundary, as used for deer or cattle.
The 1912 map appears to show an enclosed area, partially wooded, in the nearby field, of a similar size and shape to the walled garden.
The Royal Mail re-organised its postal districts in the 1930s and at that point many hamlets and localities ceased to exist officially, such as Sprighill, Corsehill, Bankhead and Kirklands.
The 1860 OS map show two milestones were near Thorntoun, one close to the junction of the lane down to Hallbarns and Cauldhame farms and the other on the left facing Crosshouse, before the Holm Burn bridge, indicating 4 miles (6.4 km) to Irvine and three to Kilmarnock.
This happened all over Scotland, however Fife at least was more fortunate than Ayrshire, for the stones were taken into storage and put back in place after the war had finished.
In addition to providing better surfaces and more direct routes, the turnpikes settled the confusion of the different lengths given to miles,[9] which varied from 4,854 to nearly 7,000 feet (2,100 m).
The woodland policies contain a mixture of mature oak, Norway maple, beech, copper beech, willow, horse chestnut, aspen, rhododendron, Scots pine, alder, ash, elm, monkey puzzle, willow, sycamore, holy, elder, yew, lime, hawthorn, blackthorn and other species.
The woodland floor has drifts of snowdrops, bluebells and some primroses, together with ground ivy, bird's-foot trefoil, coltsfoot, three-veined sandwort, vetch, ladys mantle, red campion, bistort, foxgloves, tuberous comfrey, ivy, yellow saxifrage, pendulous sedge, brambles, etc.
The large leaved Persian Ivy (Hedera colchica)[15] grows at the walled garden, a relict of the exotic plantings of yesteryear, as is the very unusual stand of Butcher's Broom.
The ground flora of the Thorntoun policies is typical of the semi-natural diversity of many deciduous woodlands in Ayrshire, particularly of those associated with current or previous country estates.
The 1860, 1898–1904 and, 1911 and 1912 OS maps all show that the extent to which the Thorntoun House was surrounded by collieries, coal pits and freight only railway or 'tram' lines.
These were all served by standard gauge mineral railway lines, criss-crossing the countryside; they all now lifted, with only a few embankments left to indicate their original course.
Strawhorn [16] states in 1951 that a fair number of inhabitants are of Cornish extraction, having been brought up here to break a coal workers strike in the 1880s.
The road running down to Springside is known as the 'Thorntoun Brae' and on the left, just before Thorntoun bridge over the Garrier Burn was the local curling pond, clearly marked on the 1911 OS map[12] A mill-wand was the rounded piece of wood acting as an axle with which several people would role a millstone form the quarry to the mill and to permit this the width of some early roads was set at a 'mill-wand breadth'.
Letters survive in the National Archives of Scotland concerning the imprisonment of Margaret Cuninghame at Lucca in Tuscany, Italy for evangelical teaching, 1853-1854.
