The remains of the old castle of Kingencleugh or Kingenclough lies close to east of the town of Mauchline, East Ayrshire, in the old Barony of Mauchline off the A76. The castle is Category B listed.
The history of Kingencleugh Castle
From the remains, this appears to have been built as a dwelling with defence as a secondary consideration. John Knox is said to have visited it in 1556. Kingencleugh was built as one of several castles built as border markers for the Campbell feus in the area. Kingencleugh latterly became part of the Ballochmyle estate. The present castle was built around 1620 to replace the older fortification that Knox would have known. The castle was abandoned once the new house was built. The Campbells held the property until the end of the 18th century.
Kingencleugh was the residence successively of Hugh and Robert Campbell, both ardent reformers. George Wishart and John Knox were entertained here and Knox also preached at this castle when he visited Mauchline in 1556. On his death bed it was to Robert Campbell that Knox said: "I rely on you becoming to them (his wife and children) as a husband and a father in my room."
Dobie records that John Knox was conducted by Lochhart of Bar and Campbell of Kineancleugh to Kyle, the ancient receptacle of the Scottish Lollards, where there were a number of adherents to the reformed doctrine. He preached in the houses of Bar, Kineancleugh, Carnell, Ochiltree, and Gadgirth, and in the town of Ayr. In several of these places he also dispensed the Sacrament of Our Lord's Supper.
The castle ruins
The remains lie above the Kingen Cleugh Glen and burn and are those of a four-storey L-shaped residence of ashlar-ended rubble masonry. The remaining walls are 0.8m thick; the two lower floors have slit windows only. The north-west wall, forming the end of the western arm of the 'L', stands to its full height of around 7.0 m, and is surmounted by a crow-stepped gable. The lower part of a corbelled turret remains in the re-entrant angle, in the western arm of which is the entrance. The main ground-floor apartment appears to have been barrel-vaulted. The house is in a fairly defensible situation, overlooking ground sloping to the south. A 'Cleugh' is a narrow gorge or chasm with high rocky sides in Scots. Jerviston House is of a very similar design.
Kingencleugh overlooks the Lily or Kingen Cleugh Glen and the burn that runs into the nearby River Ayr. Local tradition states that a subterranean passage or ley tunnel runs between Mauchline Castle and Kingencleugh.
The Lily Glen and Robert Burns
The Lily Glen or Kingen Cleugh Glen contains a small rivulet that runs down to the River Ayr. The lilies usually refer to daffodils in Scots, however lily can also be a general term for wild garlic or bluebells. The glen is rich in old woodland indicator plants such as woodruff, wood sorrel, bluebell, woodrush, cow wheat, enchanter's nightshade, creeping jenny, wood millet, dog's mercury, etc.
Local tradition maintains that Robert Burns used to visit the glen to enjoy a dip in the Kingencleugh Burn when he lived at Mossgiel Farm near Mauchline. An old stone bath or cistern still exists with moss covered steps running down to it. Locals would point out this site as being his bathing place and a vague memory of a Lady Sophia is also associated with this site. Burns is known to have frequented the area and he praised these 'Braes of Ballochmyle' in his poem to The Lass of Ballochmyle who he observed in the half-twilight near the site of the old 'Fog House.'
The OS maps show a stone bath or cistern at the bottom of the Kingen Cleugh Glen where all the burn waters were diverted into it, leaving via a tunnel cut through the rock and then running down the Haugh hamlet, situated about two and a half miles downstream from Catrine, on the north bank of the River Ayr. In 1837 there was a woollen mill, and a corn and saw mill, drawing water from the aforementioned cistern, about a quarter of a mile upstream. The lade was tunnelled through the soft red sandstone of the river gorge, and the tunnel mouths can both be seen, as can two stone arched footbridges over the lade, and an overflow sluice. No trace traces of the woollen mill, which in 1837 employed thirty persons Spinning yarn for a Kilmarnock carpet factory, have survived.
Kingencleugh House
The present day manor house was erected around 1765 and later rebuilt to plans by Mervyn Noad as a dower house to Ballochmyle in 1957. An elephant was the family crest and this appears over the door.