Scotland · Ruin
Auchans Castle
Auchans Castle (Old Auchans) is a late 16th-century mock-military mansion in South Ayrshire, Scotland, altered into an L-plan with 17th-century additions. The ruins stand on a slight knoll within former wooded policies about 1 km west of Dundonald.
Its prime
1644
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1644
What Auchans Castle looked like in its prime.
A three-storey whinstone country mansion with high crow-stepped gables and an L/T-plan formed by a main block and extended north wing; a square stair-tower sits in the re-entrant angle with a balustraded viewing platform. The north extension includes a block with two towers, one corbelled and square with crow-stepped gables. Walls are of rubble stone with regular window openings; the house occupies a slight knoll within wooded policies and an enclosed walled garden.
Its story
The story of Auchans Castle.
Auchans, a Category A-listed "mock military mansion" a kilometre west of Dundonald in Ayrshire, began as a T-plan house of the late 16th century, converted to the L-plan in the early-to-mid 17th. The estate, recorded as Achynche in 1527, was first held by the Wallaces of Dundonald, a branch of the Wallaces of Craigie; James Wallace added the fashionable square stair-tower in the re-entrant angle, with its viewing platform and broken pediments, in 1644.
Colonel James Wallace, an active supporter of the Solemn League and Covenant who led the rising at Pentland in November 1666, was the last of his family to occupy the castle. The estate had passed in 1640 to his relative Sir William Cochrane of Cowdon, an arrangement made before the insurrection; Cochrane, who also suffered in the Civil War, was created Earl of Dundonald in 1669 for services to the Crown after the Restoration.
The house later came to the Montgomeries: a vast number of valuable Eglinton family papers were rescued from one of the apartments in the 1880s, as the building slid into terminal decay. Built mainly of whinstone on a slightly elevated knoll, its ruins stand within the former wooded policies.
Step inside
11 places to explore in 1644.
The record describes 11 distinct spots at Auchans Castle, including 5 interiors: kitchen in the western wing, first-floor principal room (dining/private chamber), second-floor bedrooms and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Auchans Castle.
The families that held Auchans Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Held by the Wallaces of Dundonald from 1527; Colonel James Wallace, leader of the 1666 Pentland rising, was the last of the family to occupy it.
Cochrane
Passed to Sir William Cochrane of Cowdon in 1640; he was created Earl of Dundonald in 1669.
Montgomerie
Later held by the Montgomerie family; Eglinton family papers were recovered from the house in the 1880s.
From the archive
Auchans Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
Fig. 634. — Auchans Castle. View from the South-East.
1887 · MacGibbon & Ross, vol. 2 (1887)
Public domain
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