Thorntoun School was opened by Barnardo's in September 1971 for children with emotional difficulties aged 11 to 16 years. The school closed in 1990 and Thorntoun is now a nursing home. The complex lies between the villages of Springside (North Ayrshire) and Crosshouse, Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The old Thorntoun mansion house was demolished in the late 1960s, leaving the West Lodge, some of the home farm outbuildings, the stables and the walled garden as 'memorials' to the ancient history of the site. Many fine trees remain from the estate policies and the surviving gardens are very well maintained (2007). An entrance with a slight deviation from the old course has been created to serve the large modern buildings which house the nursing home. The History of Thorntoun house and estate In 1823 the historian Robertson describes "Thornton" as being "situated about half way betwixt Irvine and Kilmarnock: the manor or place (palace) is an elegant modern mansion, set down on the brow of a considerable height, overlooking, from amid its fine old timber and more recent plantings, a great expanse of rich country." In 1866 James Paterson, another historian, brought up locally, gives 'Thorntoun' as "This property, situated to the west of Busbie (Knockentiber), is about in extent. It belonged, of old, according to Wood, to one of the branches of the Montgomerie family." The Montgomerie, Mure and Ross families Thorntoun was at first part of the Barony of Kilmaurs and then later it was placed within the Barony of Robertoun, Parish of Kilmaurs. The estate is first recorded as belonging to Murthhaw or Murchaw de Montgomery, who is mentioned in the Ragman Rolls (a list of those loyal to Edward I of England) of 1296. A Johne of Montgomery of Thornetoun is mentioned in a legal document of 1482, forfeiting the estate to Lord Home by order of King James V. By the beginning of the seventeenth century Thorntoun had passed into the ownership of another ancient and renowned Ayrshire family, the Mures (or Muirs), a branch of the Mures of Rowallan Castle near Kilmaurs. James Mure, Burgess of Glasgow, had married Margaret, a daughter of Robert Ross of Thorntoun on 27 June 1607 and inherited the property through his spouse. Nothing is known of how and when the Ross's, another ancient Ayrshire family, had come to possess Thorntoun. Hew (Hugh) was one son, a merchant in