THE owner of Fairlie Castle says his dream of converting the 16th century keep into an eco-friendly luxury house is on course - 500 years after it was built.

Billy Kirkwood purchased the historic building around 20 years ago and plans to modernised it with solar panels and ground-source heating to bring 'the old part of the castle in with the new'.

It has been a long time coming for the local house builder who has helped worked on several developments in the aream including Millennium Court, Southannan and Halkshill House.

His personal project at Fairlie Castle has been a labour love, with various planning applications and consents necessary.

He was back on site this week after finally securing the go ahead from planning bosses.

Billy hopes to live in the castle, which was previously owned by the Earl of Glasgow, upon completion.

He said: "That's everything in place for the restoration of the castle

"The first stage involves consolidating the internal collapsed walls and structural stuff. Once that is complete, the new roof will be put on to allow the drying out process to start.

"The biggest problems have been lockdown and getting the stonemason, because he has a backlog of work and the logistics of getting materials. With a lot of factories shut down it has been difficult getting what we need.

"We have to rebuild the structure inside first to consolidate the main walls before we can put it all back together. It is quite a job but it is a lovely old castle.

"They reckon that if weren't doing the restoration then the castle only had another 30 years.

"With new technology from solar panels to heat pumps, we are looking at what we can do to make it as eco-friendly as possible. All the things relevant to modern methods of construction we will try to incorporate while still in keeping with the style of the original castle."

The massive project comes in a landmark year for the historic building.

Billy explained: "The castle is 500 years old in 2021. Old history documents and books show it was built in 1521, so you could say it is getting a major makeover for its birthday!"

The plans involve retaining the two ground floor rooms in the castle as store rooms due to their low headroom, while the first floor will become a drawing room. The second floor will have a showcase double bedroom with en-suite bathroom, study and separate WC, while the third floor is to have a single and a large en-suite bedroom.

The living room will be in the castle basement and an open plan dining/living/kitchen and entrance hall at ground floor level.

A double garage with stone walls and a flat lead-covered roof will also be added.

The castle is located on the north bank of the steep wooded slopes of Fairlie Glen, 80 metres to the east of the nearest houses in Castlepark Drive.

Woodland adjoins to the north, west and south while agricultural land lies to the north-east and south beyond Fairlie Glen.