Saltcoats Castle is a courtyard

Courtyard

A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....

 castle dating from the sixteenth century, about 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) south of Gullane

Gullane

Gullane is a town on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in East Lothian on the east coast of Scotland. There has been a church in the village since the 9th century. The ruins of the Old Church of St...

 in East Lothian

East Lothian

East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....

, 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...

.

History

Saltcoats Castle was a property of the Livingstones. Thereafter it passed to the Hamiltons of Pencaitland

Pencaitland

Pencaitland is a village in East Lothian, Scotland, about south-east of Edinburgh, south-west of Haddington, and east of Ormiston.The land where the village lies is said to have been granted by William the Lion to Calum Cormack in 1169, who gave the church, with the tithes and other property...

 in the 18th century. It was occupied until after 1800, but it was partly demolished in 1820.

Structure

The castle construction was unusual. Three sides of the courtyard were ranges of buildings two storeys high, with attics. The fourth comprises two towers, rounded at the bases but corbelled out to square above the level of the basement. This tower is to the west. An arch, once carrying a parapet, joins the towers. There are gunloops in the walls. There is a vaulted basement.

The armorial stone of the builder, Patrick Levingtoun of Saltcoats, is now mounted over the door of a cottage nearby. The date appears to be 1592.

There is a lectern type dovecot

Dovecot

Dovecot may refer to:* Dovecot, Merseyside, an area of the City of Liverpool* Dovecot , an IMAP and POP software package-See also:* Dovecote, a building for pigeons or doves* Dovecote...

, 17 feet by 15 feet, in the boundary wall of the castle. It is now roofless. The partly buttressed walls are built of rubble, with dressings and one setback course. It has crow-stepped gables. In the south gable there are six entry holes in a grid; around 200 nests remain.