Saltcoats Castle

Saltcoats Castle is a sixteenth-century courtyard castle about half a mile south of Gullane in East Lothian. It stands on low ground surrounded by farmland and the Lammermuir Hills. The castle is a scheduled monument, legally protected for its historical importance. It was once home to the Livingstone family before passing to the Hamiltons of Pencaitland in the eighteenth century. By 1800 it was still occupied, but parts were demolished in 1820. The castle is unusual for its design. Three sides of the courtyard are lined with two-storey ranges, topped by attics. The western side has two towers, rounded at the base and square above. An arch once connected the towers, and the walls contain gunloops. A vaulted basement lies beneath. The builder’s armorial stone, dated 1592, now sits above a nearby cottage door. A roofless dovecot in the boundary wall once housed around 200 nests. Visitors find a quiet ruin set in open countryside. The dovecot’s crow-stepped gables and buttressed walls remain visible. A carved oak bed, made for Margaret Fawside in 1598, is now in Biggar Museum. The castle’s gunloops and vaulted basement hint at its past defences. The armorial stone marks the work of Patrick Levingstoun. The site offers a glimpse of sixteenth-century life in East Lothian.