Dalmore House

Dalmore (NS4344023291) was a country house and small estate in the Parish of Stair, East Ayrshire, on the River Ayr, East Ayrshire, Scotland

History

The relatively small estate of Dalmore was originally part of the Barony of Gaitgirth (Gadgirth). Paterson recorded that the family of Scherar held the property in 1615; the Scherars (Shearer) were Burgesses of Ayr. The Earl of Stair held the property in 1696. In 1821 William Heron was the owner, followed by William Dunn in 1863. William was followed by his son James; William dying in 1830 and James in 1849. William Dunn was once the quarry manager and his wife, was Jessie Mckie (died 1913), her father being William McKie (died 1897), described as a quarryman. William McKie had obtained Dalmore House from the Heron’s through inheritance. William Dunn died in 1868 and the estate was managed by his widow until their daughter inherited in 1876, having married John Cuninghame Montgomerie in the same year. John Montgomerie remained a proprietor until 1900.

An unusual joint memorial to the Herons, McKies and Dunns of Dalmore is located in the Stair cemetery close to the church.

Montgomerie of Dalmore

The family memorial in Stair cemetery shows that Jessie Helen Viola Dunn (JHVD), daughter of William Dunn, married John Cuninghame Montgomerie of Bruchag, Bute in 1876. Their first daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was born at Dalmore House in the year that the alterations on Dalmore House were completed, 1881. The Montgomerie family had five daughters and a son, John Cuninghame Montgomerie (died, Ayr, 1974).

Dalmore House

The architect David Bryce, the architect of the Bank of Scotland remodelling and extension, 1864–1870, is recorded as having worked on Dalmore House prior to 1868 and this may be an earlier house to which alterations and extensions were made in the 1880s. Dalmore House was completed in 1880-81 by the architects John and Robert Ingram for the Heron family. As shown by the illustration the house was an eccentric collection of styles, including Gothic, Tudor, French and Elizabethan styles. The owners clearly had problems with the chimneys and smoke as can be seen from the highly unusual presence of metal pipe vents.

In 1916 a machinery shed and water supply were added.

Dalmore House became uninhabitable in the early 1960s, recognised as such after John Montgomerie moved into the property with his new and much younger wife, his ex-his secretary. The house was found to be riddled with dry rot and was condemned; John and his wife moved out and went to live in Sandfield Road, Ayr. John Montgomerie died in Ayr in 1974; as recorded on the family memorial in Stair cemetery.

After the fire in April 1969 (Tucker states 1958) the stone walls of the house, the abandoned and ruinous entrance lodge and the still occupied stable cottages remain. The property is still owned by the Montgomerie family who are now based in Coylton.

On Blaeu’s 1654 map the site is named ‘Dalmoir’. The name Dalmore may come from the Gaelic ‘dail mòr’, meaning ‘big field’.

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