Knockroon is a planned development located between the towns of

Cumnock Cumnock (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cumnag'') is a town and former civil parish located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The town sits at the confluence of the Glaisnock Water and the Lugar Water. There are three neighbouring housing projects which lie j ...

and

Auchinleck Auchinleck ( ; ;
) is a village southea ...

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire (; ) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquarters of the council are located on London Roa ...

, Scotland. The development was initiated by

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

(later King Charles III) as part of his renovation plans for the nearby

Dumfries House Dumfries House is a Palladian country house in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located within a large estate, around west of Cumnock. Noted for being one of the few such houses with much of its original 18th-century furniture still present, including ...

estate, which he hoped would regenerate the local economy in this depressed area.

East Ayrshire Council East Ayrshire Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Shiorrachd Inbhir Àir an Ear'') is the political body covering the East Ayrshire local authority created in 1995, comprising nine wards, each electing three of four local councillors through th ...

granted outline planning permission for 770 houses on 7 December 2009. The development of Knockroon was expected to continue over a 25-year period, backed by

The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment The King's Foundation (formerly the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture until 2001, the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment until 2012, the Prince's Foundation for Building Community until 2018, and the Prince's Foundation until 2 ...

, and is being designed on

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

principles. The first houses in the development were built by Hope Homes Scotland and ZeroC.

has expressed a personal interest in the development. Construction started in April 2011. In February 2019 ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' reported that only 31 of the planned 770 homes had been built. In July 2022, ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' reported that the project's value "was written down from £15 million to £700,000". A leading Scottish architect, Professor Alan Dunlop, described the prince's vision as an "imported pastiche" and a "curious mix" of relatively expensive homes dropped into a rural setting that should have never been built.The Sunday Times report - 3 July 202

/ref> In July 2022, a spokesman for the

Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR; ) is a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government with responsibility for the regulation of charities in Scotland. OSCR is the independent regulator and registrar for more than 25,000 Scottish ch ...

said "we can confirm that the work of Havisham Group and property transactions relating to the Knockroon development in Ayrshire forms part of our overall investigation, work on which is ongoing." Between 2012 and 2017, Havisham Properties, owned by Lord Brownlow, purchased 11 properties for £1.7 million on the Knockroon development. Brownlow had been a trustee of

The Prince's Foundation The King's Foundation (formerly the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture until 2001, the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment until 2012, the Prince's Foundation for Building Community until 2018, and the Prince's Foundation until 2 ...

between 2013 and 2018, serving for a period as Chairman.

References

External links

Knockroon website
Populated places established in 2009 New Urbanism communities Villages in East Ayrshire Geography of East Ayrshire Planned communities in Scotland 2009 establishments in Scotland Charles III New Classical architecture in the United Kingdom Planned communities established in the 2010s Cumnock {{EastAyrshire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links