Kilcoy Castle

Kilcoy Castle is a large, circa 1620, Z-plan tower house built of rubble, standing four storeys high. It has steeply pedimented ornamental dormerheads over the third-floor windows. The main block extends east-west with three bays, grouped 1/2, featuring a central first-floor window flanked by minimally ogee-arched panels. These panels now contain the initials AWR and TIR, along with the date 1968, to record a recent restoration. A tall, conical-roofed drum tower is located at the north-west angle, with a corbelled-out stair turret in the re-entrant angle. To the south-east is a circular tower which corbelled out to a square shape at the second floor, with another stair turret corbelled out above the first floor. Circular, conical-roofed bartizans are positioned at the south-west and north-east angles. The towers feature plentiful shortholes and loopholes, carved gargoyle spouts, and crowsteps.

Restoration work, including re-roofing, and additions were undertaken by Ross and Macbeth between 1850 and 1856. This involved creating a new round-arched doorway in the centre of the south front, while the original door located in the south-east re-entrant angle was converted into a window. A four-storey rear wing, plain in appearance with a crowstepped gable, was constructed to the north, backed by a small single-storey service court.

The ground floor rooms are vaulted. The first-floor hall contains a chimneypiece dated 1679, carved with heraldic bearings depicting a bear, a hound, a hare (representing courage and timidity), and mermaids playing harps. Remnants of a barmkin wall remain. The castle was de-scheduled on 2 September 1997.