Mansions Cunning Park Ayr buyer beware or not?

Answer 1

The site of the "Mansions" at Cunning Park, Ayr is on ground which was attached to Cunning Park house. Cunning Park house and the ground was owned by the Craig family who own the livestock market on the Coylton road just outside Ayr. The old site of their market was in Ayr. Now (2013) people may recognise that site as Morrison's supermarket off Castlehill road. The Market Inn on the railway bridge at Ayr railway station was the just outside the old cattle and sheep market. Cunning Park House was last occupied in the late 1980s when Mrs Craig, the last member of the family, died. The house itself sat on a raised piece of ground overlooking the Firth of Clyde. The building was a 2 story sandstone building with extensive wood paneling. One unusual feature was a flagpole attached to the house. It was locally understood that some of the wood paneling and the flagpole had come from a shipwreck in the late 19th century. Behind the house was a stable block and animal byre. The stables used to have wonderful wooden sections for horse saddles and individual stalls for the horses which worked on the farm grounds. Behind the stables and to the north side of the byre was a large walled orchard. The orchard was surrounded by trees and the approach to Cunning Park house was between these trees. In the spring the path approaching Cunning Park House was surrounded by thousands of spring flowers. Bluebells, crocus and daffodils were mixed with wild garlic. Just a few of these buebells and a couple of stone animal feeding troughs sit at number 3 Belleisle Drive. The mature trees which are visible on the north side of Belleisle Drive, Ayr KA7 are all that remain of the eastern boundary of the orchard and the impressive tree lined approach to Cunning Park House, Ayr. There is still an old map of the site available at http://gohistoric.com/sites/doonfoot-road-belleisle-estate-south-lodge-bridge-crossing-slaphouse-burn-ayr/aerial On that picture Cunning Park House and the outbuilding have been demolished. The outline of the new Belleisle Drive has been superimposed. The ground was used by the Craig family to store cattle and sheep which were sold at the market. Sometimes there were cattle which spent the winter months in the fields. Sometimes a flock of sheep were kept there for periods of months. The boggy land which adjoins Doonfoot Road, Ayr on the Cunning Park site was often kept boggy by cattle churning through the ground. The ground is boggy because there is water flowing under the site. It is believed that this water forms part of the original course of the river Doon which is now about 0.5 miles south of the Cunning Park ground. The flowing water is still there because you can see the outflow on the beach promenade. That is the brown brackish water which is visible at the beach near the end Carwinshoch View, Seafield, Ayr. Various developers tried through the 1980s and 1990s to get planning permission for housing on the Cunning Park site. At one point Wimpey Homes had a planning application rejected for several hundred small houses. Another company were Enterprise Homes. All applications failed because a large part of the site was a flood plain. The Slaphouse burn which runs through Belleisle Park flooded 3 or 4 times a year and the water briefly sat over the low lying part of the ground to the south of the lane which was the entrance to Cunning Park House. The planning applications failed because of inadequate drainage relief. A company called Heritage Homes was set up in 2001. They applied for and received outline planning permission for housing on the Cunning Park site. Their drainage plans appeared similar to others. Their main flood relief was a plan to dig and install a concrete levy which drained into the boggy area in the centre of the site. This plan seemed to be similar to many others and it was not clear why South Ayrshire Council passed this plan and not others. Heritage Homes did not stay in business long. They ceased trading and were dissolved in 2007. The ground, with planning permission, was sold. At one time Mr Tom Hunter and his wife Marion were believed to own the land. Mr Hunter is a very wealthy Ayrshire entrepreneur. He had plans to develop one house on the raised site of the Cunning Park House. The byre was going to be a garage for some of Mr Hunter's cars. The walled orchard was going to be restored. While waiting for his plans to be approved Cunning Park House was vandalised a number of times and was set ablaze more than once. Mr Hunter had the shell of Cunning Park House demolished. He had the animal byre dismantled and the beautiful sandstone stored in the orchard area. The plan was to use this stone in the rebuilding of the site. Ultimately Mr Hunter did not develop the site and he moved elsewhere in Ayrshire. The stone was buried on site and is under the old orchard site. The site passed to a company of Mr David Murray. Mr Murray was also a very wealthy Ayrshire born man. He was famously the owner of Glasgow Rangers Football Club. His wealth was mainly generated by the steel business and his company Murray International Metals. It is believed he was actually raised in one of the houses at Seafield Drive, Ayr. The actual house could have been very close to the north eastern corner of the Cunning Park farm grounds. All of that area of Seafield was once owned by the Craig family who owned Cunning Park House. It is believed the planning permission for building houses in Seafield around 1910 also contained permission for Ayr Burgh Council to develop a promenade on the beach front on ground owned by Cunning Park House. This allowed the splendid walk to be completed from the River Doon to Ayr town centre following the coast line. Mr Murray set up a company, Charlotte Ventures, Cunning Park, to develop the site. http://www.companieslist.co.uk/SC242217-charlotte-ventures-cunning-park-limited One of the Directors of Charlotte Ventures was Mr Ken Ross OBE. He was chairman of Elphinstone Estates Ltd. One of his other companies Elphinstone Homes was a high quality land and home developer. They were granted planning permission for 24 high quality homes at Cunning Park. This became known as "The Manions at Cunning Park, Ayr." http://www.cunningpark.com/selector.php The developing companies invested millions of pounds in ground works. Over 350,000 tonnes of material was brought on to the site to raise the site of the new houses. The site was raised by 2 metres, compacted and then allowed to settle for 6 months. Extensive Wick Drains were drilled every few metres across the whole site, including under the road at Belleisle Drive Ayr KA7, Swale drains surrounded the house site and drainage tunnels constructed under Belleisle Drive. The purpose of the swale drains was to remove and water from the house site and to direct it to the low lying boggy ground in the centre of the Cunning Park site. 2 drainage pits were dug and filled with rock beside the Slaphouse burn. This holds most of the overflow water from the burn. Since this drainage system was put in place the Slaphouse burn has continued to overflow a number of times each year. At the very highest water level the footpath(Meg's Way) beside the drainage pits has been partly covered. Very occasionally water has reached the swale drains and been transported to the boggy area of the Cunning Park site. Water cannot physically reach any of the house sites on Belleisle Drive Ayr. The whole drainage system works as planned and the houses in Belleisle Drive are amongst the safest in Ayr when it comes to flood risk. Unfortunately the worldwide recession caused by the banking industry meant a downturn in housing sales in Scotland. The Mansions at Cunning Park were priced in a more bouyant housing market. Having caused the worldwide recession the banks also caused chaos in the UK. Lloyds Bank were widely blamed for causing the demise of many companies. David Murray owned Glasgow Rangers football club who had an overdraft with Lloyd bank. Mr Murray sold the football club to have the bank debt paid off to Lloyds. Within a year Rangers football club were in administration and then liquidation. Elphinstone Estates also owed money to Lloyds bank and also entered administration and liquidation. http://www.scotsman.com/business/the-roof-caves-in-as-elphinstone-falls-has-lloyds-pulled-the-plug-on-property-1-1369336 The site is still owned by one of Mr Murray's companies. The Mansions at Cunning Park is still (2013) being developed. Phase 2 of the development will probably go ahead in 2014. More high quality houses will be built on the site which will never suffer any danger from flooding. The public footpath which is on the south side of Belleisle Drive Ayr KA7 was placed there by the developers. There never was a public right of way through Cunning Park. There were 2 private houses on the lane which linked Cunning Park House to Doonfoot Road. Those houses were number 42 and 44 Doonfoot Road Ayr KA7 4DP. When Belleisle Drive was developed number 42 and 44 were cut off from direct access to Doonfoot Road and, at the request of the house owners, they were redesignated as 3 and 5 Belleisle Drive, Ayr KA7 4BN. The owners of 42 Doonfoot Road (Mr and Mrs Maclean), which is now 3 Belleisle Drive Ayr KA7 4BN had a border collie called Meg. Doug Maclean and Karen Maclean used to walk the dog 2 or 3 times to the beach. They used to walk Meg down the lane to the old Cunning Park House and across one field to the beach at Seafield, Doonfoot, Ayr. Over the years a path was trodden through the field and other followed where Meg and the Macleans had walked. The developer of the site did not realise this was how the path was formed and in their plans they included a walk way to the south of the houses on Belleiesle Drive. This path connects Doonfoot Road through Belleisle Drive to the beach at Doonfoot. In memory of a much loved border collie this new path is now known as Meg's Way.