Baldoon Castle

Baldoon Castle stands in Dumfries and Galloway, about 2.4 kilometres south-west of Wigtown, beside the river Bladnoch. Built in the 16th century, it once belonged to the Dunbars of Westfield for nearly three hundred years. King James V gave the property to Archibald Duncan in 1533 or 1534. Today only fragments remain: part of the south wall and the remains of an entrance gateway 50 metres away. The gateway dates from the 17th century and shows Renaissance influences. The castle’s gate piers are recognised as a Category A listed building. They have bands of stylised rock-faced rustication alternating with lozenges, topped by cornices and moulded scroll caps. These piers mark the original entrance to the castle and survive as a good example of the period’s craftsmanship. The ruins lie close to the river, surrounded by quiet farmland and open fields. Local tradition tells of Janet Dalrymple, whose ghost is said to haunt the site in a bloodied wedding dress. Forced to marry Sir David Dunbar, she had loved the impoverished Archibald 3rd Lord Rutherfurd instead. She either died on her wedding night or shortly after. Sir Walter Scott used the story in The Bride of Lammermoor, and Gaetano Donizetti turned it into the opera Lucia di Lammermoor.