Mansions Cunning Park Ayr buyer beware or not?
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.
