Kilhilt Tower

Main	Births etc

Kilhilt was the name of the Adair Family castle / manor home that stood in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in the village of Portpatrick, County of Wigtownshire, Scotland. Nothing remains of the site today. Portpatrick sits on the southwest cost of Scotland and on a clear day you can see Ireland only 21 miles west. In the 17th century, much of the Adair Family moved to County Antrim in Ireland as part of the Ulster Plantation.

See also Adair in Wigtownshire.

Sir William Adair (d. c.1500) was granted the Kinhilt (also known as Kilhilt) estate on the Galloway peninsula in Wigtownshire, and his son Alexander, who was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, built the Castle of St. John at Stranraer in about 1510, as an administrative centre for the estate. Kinhilt itself was near Lochans, just south of Stranraer; the last remains of it were removed in 1933.

History[]

Alexander’s grandson, William Adair (d. 1593) also rebuilt the stronghold of Dunskey Castle, set on a clifftop promontory jutting into the Irish sea near Portpatrick. William Adair (d. 1626), son of Ninian Adair (d. c.1608), got heavily into debt, and in 1620 agreed an exchange with Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery, one of the undertakers of the Plantation of Ulster, whereby some of the Adair lands at Kinhilt, including Dunskey Castle, were exchanged for newly-settled lands at Ballymena in Co. Antrim.

William or Ninian Adair of Kilhilt built the Castle of St. John in Stranraer around 1510. Ninian was married to Katherine Agnew, daughter of Patrick Agnew, Sheriff of Galloway and seems to have died by 1520. In 1520 or 1521 Ninian’s son, William, was underage and so some of his inheritance was placed in the care of Gilbert Kennedy, 2nd Earl of Cassilis. Later William would marry the 2nd Earl’s daughter, Helen.

The younger William was succeeded by his son, Ninian. Ninian’s son, also named William, married Rosina MacClellan of Galston, sister of Sir Robert McClellan of MacLellan’s Castle, in 1580 and in the 1590s Ninian’s daughter, Elizabeth, married John Kennedy of Greenan, Creichan and Balneil, natural son of the 3rd Earl of Cassilis. Their son, Gilbert Kennedy of Aryewlane, would marry Helen Adair, grand-daughter of William Adair and Helen Kennedy, around 1603, so cementing the Adairs’ connection with the Earls of Cassilis.

Ninian died in 1608 and is said to have been succeeded by his son, William who died in 1626 having moved to Ballymadoss in County Antrim, Ireland, presumably as part of the Plantation of Ulster. William was succeeded by eldest son, Sir Robert Adair of Kilhilt. Sir Robert’s two sons, William and Archibald, both moved to Ireland.

Adairs leave Kilhilt by 1736[]

Ballymena Castle (Northern Ireland) built circa 1640, became a centre for the Irish estates of Adair, and thereafter the family was increasingly based in northern Ireland, although the remainder of the Kinhilt estate (Scotland) was retained until 1736, when it was sold to the 2nd Earl of Stair by Col. Sir Robert Adair (1659-1745).

The last remains of Kilhilt were removed around 1933.

Alternative Names[]

ALTERNATIVE NAMES FOR KILHILT: Gilhelt; Kilhelt; Kilhill; Kilhist; Kinhill; Kinhilt; Kylnnahelt; Kynhilt

Grid Location[]

WHERE IS KILHILT?

Kilhilt is in the parish of Portpatrick and the county of Wigtownshire, Scotland.
Grid reference:NX 0593 5583
Lat / long:54.8595120,-5.0251920

References[]

Kilhilt Castle - Stravaiging.com
Adair of Ballymena Castle