Carsluith Castle

Carsluith Castle is a ruinous 16th century tower house, just south of Newton Stewart on the A75. We discovered it accidently when planning a day trip in the area. It is positioned next to the main road, which makes it hard to ignore. The fact you can sit in the garden with a cup of tea and slice of cake, bought from the café next door, makes it even more appealing.

The land around this area was held by the Cairns family, until the 1460's when it passed to James Lindsay of Fairgirth, the Chamberlain of Galloway. It was Lindsay who built the main tower in the late 15th or early 16th century.

When his grandson, Sir Herbert Lindsay was killed at Flodden in 1513, the castle passed through his daughter, to Richard Brown (Broun). It was the Browns who added a stair tower on the north side of the castle in the 1560s.

The Browns were a Catholic family and regularly fought with the Protestant McCulloch family. In 1579, Richard's son John was charged with murdering the McCulloch, laird of Barholm.

Another descendant of Richard Brown was Gilbert Brown, who served as the last abbot of Sweetheart Abbey before the Protestant Reformation.

In 1748, the Browns emigrated to India and the castle has not been occupied since.

As Carsluith Castle is situated close to the sea it is possible that there may have been a moat between the castle and the road.

The main tower is 9.8m by 7.6m and around 10m high. It is topped with crow-step gables and wall walks along the gable ends, with three round corner turrets.

The stair tower is also topped with gabled cap-house.

As I could not enter the building, I researched the interior of the tower. The ground floor entrance is via the northerly stair tower where the Brown coat of arms is carved above the door, with initials and the date 156? (the last digit being illegible).

There is of course my favourite - a vaulted basement which is divided into two cellars with gunloops in the walls, which I was sad not to have seen. Above the basement is the hall with it's larger windows and fireplace. At least I could sneak a peek through the windows at these.

The floor above the hall contained the bedrooms, with an attic at the top wall walk level. On the north side, you can see the holes on the outside wall which supported an external timber gallery linking the second floor rooms and stair tower.

In the early 1800's, new farm buildings were built onto the castle, forming a steading which remains today.

Carsluith Castle is protected as a scheduled monument with Historic Environment Scotland.

It is such a shame that like many Historic Environment Scotland properties, we were unable to get inside the tower. Hopefully, the masonry issues will soon be sorted and visiting the inside will once again be permitted.

The car park is right next to the castle and serves both the castle and neighbouring café.