Mauchline Castle
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Mauchline Castle, also known as Abbot Hunter's Tower,[1] is a rectangular tower house dating from the fifteenth century, in Mauchline, East Ayrshire, Scotland.[2] The tower once formed part of a group of monastic buildings associated with Melrose Abbey, and today is a category A listed building.[3]
Before 1177 the monks of Melrose Abbey held lands in Ayrshire, approximately represented by the extent of Mauchline parish.[1] The castle was constructed in about 1450 as part of a grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery. The arms of Abbot Andrew Hunter (c.1444-71) on a boss in the vaulting of the first-floor hall give the earliest dating of the Castle.[2] Huw Campbell of Loudoun was appointed Bailie of Barony in 1521, gaining the temporal lordship in 1606.[2] The square-headed windows may have been inserted at this time.[1] During the following two centuries, houses were built next to the castle, and in the 18th century Gavin Hamilton, lawyer and friend of Robert Burns, lived here as a tenant of Lord Loudoun[2] Burns is said to have written the parody sermon The Calf, and to have married Jean Armour, in the castle.[4] Although repaired in the 19th century, it was described as being "in a state of decay" in 1980.[1]