Eglinton Country Park - The Decline and The Rebirth of Eglinton

The Decline and The Rebirth of Eglinton

The Eaglesham lands, including the Polnoon estate, were sold in 1842 after 700 years of ownership by the Montgomeries. The failure of the Glasgow Bank in 1878 lead to financial difficulties, which together with the poor state of the castle, resulted in the sale of the entire contents of the house between 1 and 5 December 1925. Subsequently the house was un-roofed and the windows removed so that tax and rates were no longer payable; they amounted to £1000 per annum. The Montgomerie family had moved to Skelmorlie Castle by December 1925.

By 1938 the OS map shows a municipal cemetery at Knadgerhill (opened in 1926) and Ayrshire Central Hospital near the Redburn gate in the Meadow Plantation. The War Department purchased parts of the estate for training purposes in 1939. In 1948 the Trustees of the late 16th Earl sold most of the remaining parts of the estate to Robert Howie and Sons of Dunlop for £24,000. The 17th Earl officiated at the opening of a food processing establishment in the old stables / offices. A large army vehicle storage facility was built in the estates Crow Wood area (this became Volvo Trucks) and the A 78 (T) with its interchanges and access roads cut through the southern section of the estate (mainly parts of the deer park and the Irvine March wood). Several housing schemes were to follow at Girdle Tool, Stanecastle, Knadgerhill, Sourlie, The Hill, etc.