Loudoun Castle is a ruined 19th century country house near Galston

Galston, East Ayrshire

Galston is a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland which has a population of 5000 . It is situated in wooded countryside 4 miles up-river from Kilmarnock and is one a group of the small towns located in the Irvine Valley between the towns of Hurlford and Newmilns. Galston is located in the Loudoun area...

, in the Loudoun

Loudoun

Loudoun is an area of East Ayrshire, Scotland, east of Kilmarnock. The word Loudoun is a derivative of the Celtic Pagan God name Lugus.Loudoun is a parish and is named after the former village which stood north of Galston. The area is commonly referred to as the "Irvine Valley", for the River...

 area of Ayrshire, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The ruins are protected as a category A listed building.

History

A tower house was built at Loudoun in the 15th or 16th century, and was extended in the 17th century. Around 1807, the present Loudoun Castle was built to designs by the architect Archibald Elliot

Archibald Elliot

Archibald Elliot was a Scottish architect.Archibald Elliot ran an architecture practice in London and Edinburgh with his brother James Elliot. Following James' death in 1810, Archibald ran the company on his own...

. It was built as the home of the Countess of Loudoun and Moira (1780–1840). The house was gutted by fire in 1941. Only the shell of the building remains. An amusement park

Loudoun Castle (theme park)

Loudoun Castle was a theme park set around the ruins of the 19th century Loudoun Castle near Galston, in the Loudoun area of Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. The park opened in 1995, and closed at the end of the 2010 season...

 was opened in the grounds in 1995, and closed in 2010.

Traditions

A ley tunnel

Ley tunnel

Ley tunnels are a common element of the local folklore tradition in the United Kingdom and they also occur in Europe. In Norwegian a ley tunnel-like passage is called a "lønngang" and in Swedish a "lönngång"...

 is said to run from Loudoun Castle, under the River Irvine

River Irvine

The River Irvine is a river flowing through southwest Scotland, with its watershed on the Lanarkshire border of Ayrshire at an altitude of above sea-level, near Drumclog, and SW by W of Strathaven...

, to Cessnock Castle over 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the south.

External links