Auchincruive

Auchincruive is a former country house and estate in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located east of Ayr, on the north bank of the River Ayr. Auchincruive House was built in the 18th century on the site of an earlier mansion. In 1927 the estate became the West of Scotland College of Agriculture, and the house was renamed Oswald Hall. The college became the Scottish Agricultural College in 1990. In 2007 the college announced that the site would be disposed of for redevelopment, and masterplan proposals were approved by South Ayrshire Council in January 2011. The house is protected as a category A listed building, along with other buildings on the estate. The estate is included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.HistoryThe lands of Auchincruive passed from the Wallace family to the Cathcarts in 1374, although the first record of a house is in 1532, when a tower house stood on the site of the present building. The layout of the estate was formalised from 1723, to designs by William Boutcher, Sr. This included planting north and south of the river, as shown on General Roy's map of 1750.In 1758 the estate passed to James Murray of Broughton, who sold it 1764 to the merchant Richard Oswald, who built the present Auchincruive House. Robert Adam provided a design for a house to James Murray in 1764, although Oswald built the house, in modified form, in 1767. Adam's scheme for the interiors was carried out as planned. Adam also designed Oswald's Temple, a castellated temple or tea-house, which stands on a nearby hill and was completed in 1778. Oswald was appointed as the British peace commissioner who negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1783 when the American War of Independence came to an end. After the negotiations, he retired to Auchincruive where he died the following year.