Site type TOWER HOUSE
Canmore ID 55082
Site Number NT48SE 7
NGR NT 48541 81877
Council EAST LOTHIAN
Parish DIRLETON
Former Region LOTHIAN
Former District EAST LOTHIAN
Former County EAST LOTHIAN

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Archaeological Notes

(NT 48541 81877) Saltcoats Castle (NR) (remains of)
OS 6" map (1968)

Saltcoats Castle is described in the Object Name Book of the Ordnance Survey (ONB) as' The ruins of an ancient castle near Saltocats House , the only portion remaining are the E end, the walls are a fraction of the ...
Name Book 1853

The late 16th c Saltcoats Castle consists of a main structure 72' by 23 1/2' which forms the S side of a courtyard with two projecting angle towers at the W end. The N wall and inner partitions of the main building are absent. Only the ground floor of some subsidiary buildings at the NE corner remain. The enclosing walls exist but are much repaired. The castle was still inhabited about 1790 but most of the building was removed for agricultural improvements about 1823-4.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 1913

Saltcoats Castle is generally as described except that the main block, which is virtually intact, forms the W side of the courtyard.
Visited by OS (RDL) 21 November 1962 and (SFS) 11 July 1975

The armorial stone of the builder, Patrick Levingtoun of Saltcoats, now mounted over the front door of a nearby cottage, probably came from over the door of the castle, and the date must be 1592 (the second digit crudely recut as a 3).
C McWilliam 1978

Architectural Notes

NT48SE 30 48501 81917 Dovecot
NT48SE 52 48503 81890 Market Garden house

MacGibbon and Ross, D and T (1887-92) The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, 5v Edinburgh
Page(s): 183, Vol.IV. Held at RCAHMS F.5.21.MAC

McWilliam, C E (1978a) Lothian except Edinburgh, The Buildings of Scotland series Harmondsworth
Page(s): 422-3 Held at RCAHMS Quick

Ordnance Survey (Name Book) Object Name Books of the Ordnance Survey (6 inch and 1/2500 scale)
Page(s): Book No.27, 15 Held at RCAHMS Ref