Description:

Kilbirnie Castle is a ruined 15th-century tower once owned by the Barclay and Crawfurd families. The Barclay family held the lands of Kilbirnie and may have built the first castle here. It was an almost square keep of four storeys, with the lower two vaulted, measuring about 12.8m by 9.9m and walls 2.0m to 2.5m thick. In 1470, Sir John Barclay of Kilbirnie and Crawfordjohn died, leaving only his daughter, Marjory, who inherited his estates and married Malcolm Crawfurd, son of Malcolm Crawfurd of Loudon and heir to Galbraith of Easter Greenock, bringing Kilbirnie into the Crawfurd family. Around 1627, Sir John Crawfurd of Kilbirnie and Easter Greenock added a hall block extending east from the keep’s southeast corner.