World Prisons
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United Kingdom

HM Prison Kilmarnock

Low
Verified 29 May 2026
Fresh · 0d ago

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit HM Prison Kilmarnock

Step-by-step guidance using the United Kingdom system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of HM Prison Kilmarnock

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Crossroads - geograph.org.uk - 257176.jpg

    Photo by Mary and Angus Hogg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

  • HMP Kilmarnock.jpg

    Photo by Angela Mudge via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

  • Prison wall of HMP Kilmarnock - geograph.org.uk - 481844.jpg

    Photo by Darrin Antrobus via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Background

HM Prison Kilmarnock is a prison in Bowhouse, Hurlford near Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is situated 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Hurlford on the Mauchline Road. Its location means it is locally known as Bowhouse Prison. The prison was opened 25 March 1999 by Premier Prison Services and was privately run by Serco (who acquired Premier in 2002) until the expiry of their contract in March 2024 at which point the Scottish Prison Service took over direct management of the prison. In 2005 the BBC program Panorama uncovered several failings in the operational running of the prison, resulting in the prison carrying out internal investigations.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

Current population

Occupancy

Year opened

1999

Operational

Facility profile

Operator

Serco Group

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1999

Region

Security level

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Data completeness

20%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources