Stevenston - History

History

The town is named after Stephan Loccard or Lockhart, whose father obtained a grant of land from Richard de Morville, Lord of Cunninghame and Constable of Scotland, around 1170. The town is first mentioned in a charter of c. 1240.

The Castle Hill near Hullerhirst may have once been the site of a small stone tower. Under a sand mound near Dubbs a stone pavement, coffin, and large boulder were discovered in 1832. Numerous flints tools have been found in the sands of Ardeer.

The town's main link with Robert Burns is that Mayville House was the birthplace in 1768 of Miss Lesley Baillie. Robert Burns met her in 1792 and described her to a friend as "the most beautiful, most elegant woman in the world". She inspired one or two of his love poems, in which she is described as 'Bonnie Lesley'. A memorial now stands in her memory and is situated between Sinclair Street and Glencairn Street.

To the north of the town sits the ruin of Kerelaw Castle, with a history spanning over 800 years. Nearby was Kerelaw House, once home to the family of Alexander Hamilton and later the family of Kenneth Campbell VC RAFVR; however, the house was demolished in the early 1970s.

A hamlet known as Piperheugh once existed near Woodhead Plantation and Ardeer Steading. It was famed for the manufacture of trumps or Jew's harps.

The regeneration of Irvine Bay includes the development of Stevenston Business Centre on the site of the Grange Bingo Hall.

Ardeer estate

Deucathall or Dovecothall was the previous mansion house at this site, standing in the Hillcrest Drive area, but now totally demolished. It was the residence of George Campbell, a relation of the Loudoun branch of that clan. The new Georgian-style mansion, Ardeer House was located near to the Ardeer Bowling Club and after being sold to Nobels' in 1929 it was used as the Nobel Recreation Centre for some years, but was sadly demolished in 1968. One of the most distinguished owners in the later 17th century was the covenanter Patrick Warner, a minister who was forced to escape to Holland after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. These houses once stood on the sea coast and the site is said to have been a favourite anchorage ground, fragments of boats and anchors having been found at various points here and further inland. A sea-washed cave is located a little behind the house. The field behind the mansion house was once called the Temple Field. A miniature rifle range was once located in the old walled gardens.

The Revd. Patrick Warner had picked up skills in land reclamation during his exile in Holland and his first act was to drain the bogs by cutting the Master Gott, linking several small lochans or dubbs, and it was this drain that was later partly incorporated into the Stevenston Canal.

The Ardeer Cave

A cave exists at the site of the old mansion, and remains of a dressed stone frame for an iron grille over a hole in the cave roof suggested its use as a grotto in the 19th century. The visible remains suggested a souterrain, but the absence of records of these in south-west Scotland make this unlikely. The passage is lined with corbelled drystone walling, roofed with capstones, and leads into the natural cave section which may have been formed by wave action as it shows a water-scoure created by wave action. Some areas of undistrubed stratified deposits have been found, together with evidence of occupation, such as a hearth, bones, and a fragment of glass.