Bourtreehill is a medieval estate that sits right alongside Annick Road. The name comes from the Ayrshire word "Bour Tree" — the Common Elder tree (Sambucus nigra), once common in the area's old woodlands.
Robert the Bruce
The first recorded owner of Bourtreehill was Robert the Bruce. He received the estate from the Colt family shortly after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The future King Robert II then rented it to Alan of Blair, with the barony later formally conferred on Roger de Blair by Bruce.
It was a valuable barony, lying partly in the parish of Irvine and partly in Dreghorn. By 1776, Taylor and Skinner's survey of the roads of North Britain records the Countess of Crawfurd as proprietor.
A Mysterious and Hidden History
The old Bourtreehill House (now destroyed) sat on a wooded hilltop about a mile from Irvine town centre. The estate had connections to Robert Burns, William Wallace, and Lord Byron. Medieval in origin, it contained ruined structures, ancient trees, overgrown avenues, and garden features dating to the mid-18th century.
In the early 1980s, two fine stone arches stood side by side in the northeastern quarter of the estate, serving some purpose involving traffic. The oldest driveway led directly to these twin arches. Sadly, only one survives today — the other was progressively vandalised.
An old railway trackbed can still be followed south of Bourtreehill, with a few ancient railway sleepers discoverable by the alert visitor. The old Perceton Colliery railway bridge and Bourtreehill Ford also crossed the Annick Water nearby.
Modern Bourtreehill
The Bourtreehill House itself was demolished in the 1960s. In the late 1970s, the Irvine Development Corporation built a large housing estate on the land — Bourtreehill North and Bourtreehill South. The housing was designed to complement the ancient wooded hilltop, with buildings described as "biomorphic" in style. The River Annick still runs through the area.