Ardstinchar Castle

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Ardstinchar Castle is a late medieval ruin at Ballantrae in Ayrshire, Scotland, where the River Stinchar meets the sea. It was built in the mid-1400s by Hugh Kennedy of Ardstinchar. In the 1770s the castle was demolished and its stone used to build a three-arched bridge over the River Stinchar and nearby houses. Today only the keep ruins remain, and the site is a scheduled monument.

Hugh Kennedy, once a Dominican friar who fought in France, held the land by 1429 and, with his brothers, formed the Barony of Ardstinchar. The Kennedy family lived there for generations. The castle was visited by James V in 1529 and by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1563; Mary may have walked along the half-turret walkway that still survives.

A long feud with Clan Cassillis ended in 1601 with the murder of the last Bargany and Ardstinchar. By 1770 the castle was in ruins and its stone was used for the bridge and for buildings in Ballantrae, including what is now the King's Arms Hotel. The remains show a wedge-shaped plan with three square towers, a north gatehouse, and a southeast keep around a courtyard. The main tower rises about 15 metres high; the walls are around a metre thick. The site sits on a rocky hill by the river, with a rock-cut trench outside the northeast wall and another shallow trench to the west.