Oldwoodhouselee Castle

Old Woodhouselee Castle was a 16th-century tower house standing on a high rock south of the River Esk, about 2.4 kilometres northeast of Penicuik in Midlothian. Built by Oliver Sinclair in the first half of the 16th century, it later passed to the Hamiltons of Bothwellhaugh. The castle’s most dramatic moment came in 1570 when Regent Moray expelled Lady Hamilton and her young child, leaving them naked; the infant died and Lady Hamilton reportedly went mad. Her husband, James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh and Woodhouselee, later assassinated Regent Moray at Linlithgow in revenge. By the late 17th century the castle was demolished, its stones reused nearby. The site still shows the remains of a once-towering L-plan tower, now reduced to three cellars and a ruined wing. The surviving structure measures roughly 19.4 metres long, 6.3 metres wide and 2.7 metres high, with traces of a small kitchen building nearby. Historic Environment Scotland places its construction anywhere from the 16th to the early 17th century. After the Hamilton family lost the property, the castle fell out of use and was gradually stripped for building materials. Visitors today find a quiet grassy slope where only the lowest courses of stonework remain. The ruins sit beside a dismantled railway track, with the River Esk flowing a short distance to the north. A local legend tells of Lady Hamilton’s ghost, dressed in white, still searching for her lost child among the ruins. The site offers a stark reminder of Scotland’s turbulent past and the swift changes that can overtake even a grand tower house.