Scotland · Restored
Castle Cary Castle
Castlecary Castle is a late 15th-century Scottish tower house with a later 17th-century wing, standing near the site of an Antonine Wall fort. The main tower and its L-shaped lower wing survive as a restored private residence and are not open to the public.
Its prime
1679
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1679
What Castle Cary Castle looked like in its prime.
A roughly rectangular, 12-metre-high stone tower forms one leg of an L-shaped house with a lower two-storey east wing; walls are of locally quarried grey stone with some reused Roman masonry. Both tower and wing have pitched roofs and crow-stepped gables; the tower carries a crenellated parapet and a small cap-house. Narrow vertical windows puncture the thick walls; a machicolated projection (likely a garderobe) sits at parapet level on the north wall. The house sits within a grassy yard and low garden wall, with mature trees nearby.
Its story
The story of Castle Cary Castle.
Castle Cary Castle is a fifteenth-century tower house near Castlecary, about six miles from Falkirk, close to the site of one of the principal Roman forts of the Antonine Wall. The rectangular tower with its lower wing, forming an L-shape, is thought to have been built by Henry Livingstone of Myddillbynning and completed by 1480, incorporating "broached" stones from the nearby Antonine fort, the antiquarian Hugo B. Millar, who lived there, claimed such stones could be found all over the castle and garden walls.
For the 16th and the early part of the 17th centuries the castle belonged to the Livingstones of Dunipace, and was then acquired by the Baillies. In 1730 it passed to Thomas Dunbar of Fingask through his marriage to Bethia Baillie. After the original wing was destroyed, a two-storey east wing bearing the date 1679 was added, with an attic, turnpike stair and crow-stepped gables.
The tower retains a restored crenellated parapet, a machicolated projection at the east end of the north wall, more likely a garderobe than a serious defence, since it does not sit above the entrance, a barrel-vaulted ground-floor cellar and traces of 18th-century wall painting in the hall. Restored, it is today a private residence with no public access.
Step inside
10 places to explore in 1679.
The record describes 10 distinct spots at Castle Cary Castle, including 3 interiors: turnpike (spiral) stair, hall with fireplace and wall-painting traces, barrel-vaulted cellar. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Castle Cary Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1679, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Defend this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Castle Cary Castle.
The families that held Castle Cary Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Livingstone
Built by Henry Livingstone of Myddillbynning by 1480; the Livingstones of Dunipace held it through the 16th and early 17th centuries.
Baillie
The Baillies acquired the castle in the early 17th century; it passed by Bethia Baillie's marriage in 1730.
Dunbar
Thomas Dunbar of Fingask acquired the castle in 1730 through his marriage to Bethia Baillie.
Nearby
