Loch Doon Castle, original site & remains of, 570m NE of Craigmalloch

Heritage listing

Date Added 03/11/1999 Type Secular: castle Local Authority East Ayrshire Parish Straiton NGR NX 48813 94758 Coordinates 248813, 594758 — The monument consists of the original island site and partial remains of Loch Doon castle. It is situated on a small island, known as Castle Island, at the S end of Loch Doon. The site is usually submerged with only the tops of the walls of the castle visible. The castle was documented in 1306 when it fell to the English, marking the elimination of the last Bruce stronghold in the SW. The castle was again documented in 1333 when it was one of the few strongholds still held for David II. The castle dates from the late 13th-century castle and has an extremely unusual eleven-sided curtain wall constructed of high quality ashlar masonry. In the first half of the 16th-century a small tower was added to the inside of the west wall. The castle was dismantled and rebuilt on the shore of the loch c1935, in advance of increasing water levels. However, the wall core of the curtain wall was left on Castle Island, and archaeological deposits are also likely to have survived. Several dugout canoes were discovered on the island in the early 19th-century. The area to be scheduled is circular in shape, with a diameter of 100m to include the upstanding masonry and an area around it, within which associated remains are expected to survive: as marked in red on the accompanying map extract.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.