Kilmeny Hotel

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stivis
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by stivis »

Jean Lawson and family in the Lauriston Hotel
I believe Willie Lawson's wife was Agnes, Son and Daughter John and Elizabeth
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cadoganman
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by cadoganman »

You are spot on my error Agnes was the name of the mother of John and Liz. Many years ago someone told me that John was training to be a chiropodist and I think Liz may have been a hairdresser. Many a good lock in in was had during the restricted drinking legislation of the time.
stivis
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by stivis »

John died around 2014
Liz ,I think, owned a hairdressers
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Hughie
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by Hughie »

Kilmarnock Herald and Ayrshire Gazette
October 7, 1949


Snippet from
Getting Around and about by The Coaster
Then I'm told that a well known Saltcoats grocer is likely to be the new new licensee at the Kilmeny Hotel when the I.C.I. clear out to Glenfoot. If he can infuse some life into the place, it should be all to the good. I'm sure that in the last twenty years it has looked more like a mausoleum than an hotel. Suggestions from this office include the exclusion of what are called cocktail bars; the general opinion of this office is that while these may be good enough for Largs they do not fit in with the staid and proper persons that live about Montgomerie Crescent.
stivis
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by stivis »

"these may be good enough for Largs they do not fit in with the staid and proper persons that live about Montgomerie Crescent."

I have a feeling that that a reaction to that won't go down very,
Largs was a tip from 1979 till about 1992,
Remember Castletons and what happened?
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by exile »

Hughie wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:23 pm Kilmarnock Herald and Ayrshire Gazette
October 7, 1949


Snippet from
Getting Around and about by The Coaster
new licensee at the Kilmeny Hotel when the I.C.I. clear out to Glenfoot.
Does anyone know what this means?
Glenfoot, on the North Shore, was the ICI guest house for visiting execs and trade union leaders, and this suggests the Kilmeny was first.
stivis
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by stivis »

Glenfoot, on the North Shore, was the ICI guest house for visiting execs and trade union leaders, and this suggests the Kilmeny was first.
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If I am correct the Kilmeny was not ICI owned , but had an agreement or contract to provide accommodation and facilities to pander to ICI needs,ICI having effective control ( they are in charge and get first call )
As the Kilmeny was to a certain extent funded by ICI, ( when I say funded it might have been only a fiver per week a lot in those days, but still)
I think the Eglinton Arms attracted the more well healed and not the riff raff of ICI That would include folk that saw through the guise of ICI)
The EA also got the boat passengers, NI, Isle of Man ,Arran, Dublin? and elsewhere
The EA was a much superior building and much better accommodation( and higher standard )
It was still a reasonable place in 1976/7
At that time or slightly earlier say 1970 for the Kilmeny/Ingledene and 1974 for the Lauriston the three moved upwards ,
Willie Lawson spent a lot of money on the Lauriston, serious money
As ICI was changing , the Owner of the Ingledene , Mr Coalman was reasonably high up in ICI (or so I was told,and stand to be corrected), so that had an influence

Ingledene Dogs? I was pursued by them , and slammed the toilet door on them , they scurried off, and me then being greeted by the proprietor half way down the hall , and the reply "Know nothing about it , what about the block you walked past?"
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by Robin Ruddock »

During WW2 the Kilmeny Hotel in Ardrossan was used in 1942 as a training base for the SBS (Special Boat Section) the forerunner to the current Special Boat Service. They used folding double kayaks to mount operations from submarines surveying enemy coastlines and infiltrated harbours at night to fix limpet mines to axis shipping. Many did not return from operations and many of those captured were executed according to a directive from Hitler relating to the treatment of captured commandos.
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Re: Kilmeny Hotel

Post by donnachiecraig75 »

Meg wrote: Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:59 pm
denside wrote:Hi Meg, We moved here a couple of years ago and discovered Kilmeny Court had once been a hotel, someone said they remembered it having a "nautical theme", was that right ?
Hi Meg, my mum worked here too in around 1978. Betty Donnachie. Did you work at the same period as her?

It must have been the mid seventies when I worked in there, and to be honest, I dont remember anything "nautical" - I worked in the function suite - which was live music dancing on a Friday and Saturday, then in the bar on a Sunday. This was before Rios must admit. Alan Cameron and his mother run the place then. Must admit, it was a bit rough and I became quite adept at dodging low flying ashtrays. I think it was one of the first places to have plastic pint glasses - for obvious reasons :-)

Meg
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