Wallace's Cave, Auchinleck Estate is a Grade B listed building in the East Ayrshire local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 31 January 1992.
Wallace's Cave, Auchinleck Estate
- WRENN ID
- old-minaret-indigo
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- East Ayrshire
- Constituency
- Kilmarnock and Loudoun MP: Lillian Jones (Lab)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 31 January 1992
- OS grid reference
- NS 498 233
- Coordinates
- 55.48056, -4.37744
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
Wallace’s Cave is a picturesque, Gothick man-made grotto, likely dating to around 1760. It was probably created by extending a natural cave, and is hewn from the rocky red sandstone sides of Dippol Gorge, located to the northwest of Auchinleck House, near the Place of Auchinleck. It features a pointed arched doorway with a small, similarly treated window to the left.
The interior is stugged and approximately 14 feet square. It is rib vaulted, with moulded ribs rising from four corners and meeting at a central crossing, reaching a height of approximately 10 feet.
The grotto’s construction is contemporary with Boswell’s Summerhouse and “D” Cave, both situated further upstream and forming part of the picturesque landscape developed around the new Auchinleck House around 1760.
Named in commemoration of the Auchinleck family’s presumed connection to Sir William Wallace, the story goes that the first Laird of Auchinleck, Nicol de Achethlec (circa 1292-7), accompanied Wallace to Glasgow to defeat the English.
Local climate
Wallace's Cave, Auchinleck Estate sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,390 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 96% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings
- Garden Cottage, Auchinleck House
- High Bridge, Dippol Burn, Auchinleck House
- Ha-Ha, The Lawn, Auchinleck House
- Dovecot, Auchinleck House
- Ten Shilling Side Bridge, Dippol Burn, Auchinleck House
- Coachhouse, Auchinleck House
- Stables, Auchinleck House
- Auchinleck House
- Sandstone Bridge, Dipple Gorge, Auchinleck House
- Ice Or Deer Cave, Auchinleck House