My grandaughter and partner left their car at Kerr Baillie yesterday for a small repair and in the meantime had a walk down Glasgow Street to pass the time. They decided to visit the Castle, and were surprised to see a man walking about who greeted them and said he was the keeper of the castle and would be delighted to give them a guided tour. He spent an hour with them explaining the history of the ruins. The castle is closed to the public and has been fenced up by the council, but he had the keys and let them through. His name was Colin McIntyre, a pensioner of 66 who does volontary work for the council who, he says, are not interested in maintaining the castle and grounds. He and his friends would like to make a hub, open the castle to tourists, with guides, tidy up the park and perhaps open a little cafe', hoping that the tourist passing through from the ferry would like to visit. There is even an underground passage where you could visit for one penny up until 1999. Heritage Scotland visit with archeologists just to see the gravestones from the old church.
They were so pleased to experience this piece of Scottish hospitality, and felt so lucky to have met Mr. McIntyre as he is not there every day.
Ardrossan Castle
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Re: Ardrossan Castle
Mr. McIntyre's helping friends are also volonteers with the Heritage Society, it's great that these volonteers want to preserve our local Scottish History, and it's a pity they don't get any assistance from the Council, anything that would help to improve Ardrossan should be welcomed, so they probably depend on donations from the public. My grandaughter was so impressed by what she learnt yesterday about her Granny's former ambience, and she's being coming to Saltcoats for 24 years! Even I don't now anything about the story of Ardrossan Castle. Hopefully the project will take off and Ardrossan will become even more famous, and Mr. McIntyre and friends will get due praise and recognition.
- Meg
- Administrator
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- Location: Formerly Ardrossan, now Ayr
Re: Ardrossan Castle
Glenshena, the MacIntyres are a well known family from Rowanside Terrace in Ardrossan. One of the family members, sadly no longer with us, was a school friend of Canfactory and myself and a brother of Colin, George (geomacintyre) an expert in things first and Second World War - have a wee search to see how knowledgeable he was. There are other family members of the 3ts who check in from time to time, but I’ll let them introduce themselves.
Meg
Meg