page_title: Lands of Lainshaw
section_title: The house and estate
hierarchical_section_title: Lands of Lainshaw / The Lands of Lainshaw / The house and estate
caption_attribution_description: English: The leisure drive through the woods for coaches. The HaHa is to the left and Anderson's Plantation is straight ahead. Thid is now part of the Stewarton Woodland Action Trust's footpath from Stewarton and back past Kirkmuir and Righead.
context_page_description: The Lands of Lainshaw lie in Strathannick and were part of the Lordship of Stewarton, in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Lainshaw House is a category B listed mansion, lying in a prominent position above the Annick Water and its holm in the Parish of Stewarton, Scotland. Part of the much older Lainshaw Castle is contained within the several later building phases of the present day Lainshaw House. The names 'Langshaw' or 'Langschaw' were used in historic times. Law Mount near the High and Laigh Castleton farms has been suggested as the site of the original castle, granted in the 12th century to Godfrey de Ross by Hugo de Morville.
context_section_description: The house remained with the family until it was bought by the local authority in 1947 and became a care home for the elderly. Following a period as a ruin it was restored and converted into a number of apartments. In 1691 the "place of Longshaw [sic] and office houses" had eleven hearths, and the associated dwellings of the "Lands of Longshaw" had over sixty, including Peacockbank. The whale bone arch at the main lodges was constructed from the bones found at the confluence of the Annick Water and the Glazert Water at Water Meetings.
  The estate map of 1779 shows a band of woodland running around the estate curtilage. This strip had a carriage-way running through its middle and this links with the ha-ha at the chalybeate spring field. Wide wooden bridges with stone abutments close to the Annick Bridge in Stewarton and close to the walled gardens allowed a complete circuit of the estate curtilage to be made. Only the abutments of these bridges remain.
  The old driveway to Lainshaw House off the Stewarton to Torranyard road also has a 'ha-ha' on the side facing the home farm before it reaches the woods. The name ha-ha may be derived from the response of ordinary folk on encountering them and that they were, "...then deemed so astonishing, that the common people called them Ha! Ha's! to express their surprise at finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk." An alternative theory is that it describes the laughter of those who see a walker fall down the unexpected hole. A seat may have been situated by the ha-ha and the woodland view would have been, and indeed still is, very attractive as this area is clearly an ancient woodland remnant. The stone boundary wall stops in line with the ha-ha.
  Near the main entrance is marked a building or buildings called 'Castle-salt', the reason for the name is not known, however salt houses were associated with baronial dwellings and these were used for the storage of salted and preserved foods. It could be that the name 'salt' is a corruption of another word, such as 'soiled' or 'soil', as in the 'night soil', i.e, the midden where the night soil was placed before being taken away for use as fertilizer. A document held in the Scottish National Archive mentions a 'Cattle salt' in Stewarton. In the Laigh Kirk graveyard there is a memorial to Robert Cunningham, erected by James Cunningham of Castle-Salt in 1827. A Mrs. Bracket lived at Castle-salt in 1820, the valued rent being £16. The land around Lainshaw Primary school was known as 'Picken's Park' (originally 'Padzean') and its trees were felled circa 1950, the trees being taken to Bickethall Farm for sawing, etc. Picken was a common local name at the time. Robertson records in 1820 that fields had been drained at considerable expense by filling ditches with stones.
  In 1779 the estate farms included Gilmill, Kirkmuir, Righead, Parkside, Irvinehill, the Kilbryde Farms, Gouknest, Magbie-hill, Gaimes-hill, Bankend of Bollingshaw, Sandyland of Bollingshaw, Canaan and Clerkland. The rental income from the estate was £1628 per year, a considerable sum (Lainshaw 1779). James Kerr was the 'Baron Officer' at Lainshaw until his death on 4 July 1880. His wife was Barbara Barclay and they were buried at the Laigh Kirk.
  The estate wall running from near Freezeland to near the Law Mount was built by unemployed labourers in the early 19th century.
  James Forrest of Mid Lambroughton recorded the rare Bird's Nest Orchids and the Lesser Wintergreen plants as growing in the estate woodlands in the 1930s. Locally the woodlands, marked as Anderson's Plantation on some maps, are known as the 'Wendy woods' for some forgotten reason.
caption: The Coach Road through the policies near the Lainshaw ha-ha
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