Moorpark House was once the home of a branch of the Knox family whose wealth derived from the manufacture of linen thread. The member of the family who established this enterprise was a young farmer, James Knox, who, in 1750, came from Kirkcudbrightshire to Kilbirnie, then an Ayrshire hamlet between Paisley and Largs, and started to bleach linen yarns and cloth in the Garnock stream which flowed through the farm. The business prospered by serving the Paisley industry and his son Robert expanded it by beginning to manufacture linen thread with the help of a watermill on the Garnock the ruins of which can still be seen to this day.

In the third generation Robert’s two sons, William and James, introduced steam power and began building the Dennyholm Mill which is still in use in Kilbirnie and whose products, still bearing the name W & J Knox, are known throughout the world. In 1850 and 1864 the firm bought up two other local mills, Garnock and Stoneyholm. At a time when the Barbours found it advisable to build a mill in New Jersey, USA the Knox family gave their name to an American mill in Baltimore. In 1876 the manufacture of netting was started in Kilbirnie to meet the increasing demands of the fishing industry.

It was William Knox – succeeded by his son Robert William Knox of the fourth generation and who was later to be a chairman of The Linen Thread Company – who built Moorpark House reflecting the importance that the linen industry had played in the family’s prosperity by having mythological Greek and Roman figures associated with the textile industry created in the stained glass windows over the main oak staircase. His grandson – also William - was unfortunately killed in 1916 in the First World War and the sandstone monument which is seen at the top of the entrance drive on the left hand side was erected in his memory.   

The fifth and sixth generations of the Knox family are represented on the parent board today by Mr G K Knox MBE the Chairman, Mr Bryce Knox and B M Knox the netting director.

From ownership by the Knox family the hotel was owned for a time by North Ayrshire Council before being fully restored by Mr Graham Conrathe the current proprietor.