page_title: Thorntoun house and estate
section_title: Natural history
hierarchical_section_title: Thorntoun house and estate / Natural history
caption_attribution_description: Ruscus aculeatus bugelenn liliacea Français&#160;: fragon
context_page_description: Thorntoun School was opened by Barnardo's in September 1971 for children with emotional difficulties aged 11 to 16 years. The school closed in 1990 and Thorntoun is now a nursing home. The complex lies between the villages of Springside and Crosshouse, Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland. 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. Many fine trees remain from the estate policies and the surviving gardens are very well maintained. An entrance with a slight deviation from the old course has been created to serve the large modern buildings which house the nursing home.
context_section_description: 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. An area of the woodland is a genuine 'bluebell wood.' The large leaved Persian Ivy (Hedera colchica) 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 bird fauna is quite diverse, including pigeons, rooks, starlings, blackbirds, kestrels, etc. Hedgehogs are present (2007).
caption: Ruscus aculeatus habit
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