Stables, Treesbank House, Ayr Road, Kilmarnock

Stables, Treesbank House, Ayr Road, Kilmarnock

This elongated U-plan stable block dates from around 1770 with later alterations and additions. It is constructed in stugged and squared rubble, possibly incorporating earlier material, with red sandstone dressings. The building is Classical in style and stands two storeys high.

The principal northwest elevation features a rusticated, round-arched central entranceway into the courtyard, now fitted with later iron gates. Above the entrance section, a raised pediment breaks the roof eaves. Large oculi (round) openings punctuate this elevation. An eaves course runs across the building, and some dormer window margins project above the roof eaves.

A square, crenellated, two-stage tower rises at the northeast corner of the complex. The northeast elevation contains randomly placed window and door openings, suggesting this range was at one time residential. This elevation also includes older openings that appear to have been historically blocked up. The south elevation similarly has blocked-up former pedestrian openings.

Most glazing has been lost, though remnants of timber frames survive throughout the building. Some openings have been deliberately blocked and there are decorative slit openings present. The building is largely roofless with no surviving chimneystacks, though some painted cast-iron rainwater goods remain.

The courtyard interior has a predominantly earthen floor with some concrete hardstanding to the west. The north range contains cartshed openings. The east and west ranges include former workshop areas fitted with late 20th century non-traditional window frames and visible steel beams. Later blockwork, particularly to the east and west ranges, marks subsequent modifications. Former accommodation to the east features rendered forestairs leading to the first floors, with some ironwork balusters and handrails surviving.

Historical Context

Treesbank was historically owned by the Campbells of Cessnock and their descendants. The earlier mansion house on the estate dated from 1672, though the current house was built in 1926. Roy's map of 1752–55 shows the estate as a sizeable country estate labelled as Treesbarnes or Burnbank, comprising a house and designed landscape. The Buildings of Scotland describes the stables as dating to around 1770, with an associated doocot of 1771 designed in an unusual octagonal plan.

By the New Statistical Account of 1845, the Campbells of Treesbank remained one of the principal landowning families of the parish, with the estate noted as having beautiful grounds and views. The stables, doocot and earlier mansion house first appear in detail on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, where the stable block is shown as two parallel rectangular-plan ranges with the crenellated tower on the east range. By the 2nd and later Edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1895, 1908 and 1938, the stables had assumed their current U-shaped footprint.

In 1975 the estate was purchased by Glasgow Trades Council and developed as a recreational education centre for the trade union movement in Scotland, alongside The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC). Photographs from 1979 show the stables were roofed and largely glazed at that time. The STUC sold the estate in the 1990s, and it is now privately owned with proposals for housing development on the northeastern part of the estate as of 2025.