A HISTORIC care home in Ayr built almost 150 years ago has changed hands.

Creggan Bahn Court was bought by the Maria Mallaband Care Group (MMCG) family last week, making the new home the company’s fifth purchase across Scotland.

Located within a mile of Ayr Town Centre near Ayr Beach Promenade, Creggan Bahn Court dates all the way back to the 1870s.

It has provided nursing and residential care for the Ayr community since 1997.

The home is led by nurse manager Samantha Baxter-Hendren, who has worked at the home for a total of eight years in the past 15, having taken seven years out to work for the NHS, before returning to the home as manager almost three years ago.

Jill Veitch, MMCG regional director, said:“Creggan Bahn is incredibly well run and staffed by an experienced and long-standing team who have clearly developed wonderful relationships with those living in the home.

“We look forward to working with Samantha and her team, and supporting them to continue to deliver the excellent, compassionate care for which they are so rightly renowned.

“Creggan Bahn is such a beautiful place, and you can clearly see when visiting how well cared for those living there are, and how proud they are of their home.

“We are delighted to welcome this grand and impressive home, its brilliant team, and of course everyone living there, into our family, and giving them everything they need to continue to flourish.”

The company already runs Glennie House in nearby Auchinleck, as well as care homes in Stirling, Falkirk, and Motherwell.

In 2017, the then owners of the home on Seafield Road were granted permission to build a two-storey care home, providing a 10-bed unit for those living with dementia.

St Andrew’s House, as it was previously known, is believed to have been built some time in the 1870s; the first record of the building’s existence is in the 1881 census, when it was occupied by a family named Alston.

It was then bought by the Galloway family shortly before the turn of the century, and was occupied by them until 1934.

James Galloway occupied the house along with his wife and two children. Mrs Galloway’s sister was also in residence, along with four servants. Together they occupied the building, which at the time had twenty rooms.

After 1934, St Andrew’s House became a hotel for short time, before being bought for use as a convalescent home in 1941 by the Scottish Horse and Motormen’s Association, which eventually became part of the Transport and General Workers Union.

Around this time, a large extension which now forms the house’s west wing was added to the original building which at the time had a dining room which seated 66 people, a bar, games room and 30 bedrooms.

The building now has 58 rooms and a day care facility catering for eight people.