Cakemuir Castle

Cakemuir Castle is a 4-storey tower house with cap house, built circa 1564 for Adam Wauchope, 5th son of Gilbert Wauchope of Niddrie. It stands 4 miles south-southeast of Pathhead on the east side of a secluded valley near Cakemuir Burn. The rectangular-plan tower is built in coursed brown stone with ashlar surrounds. A 1761 wing adjoins to the west, added for Henry Wauchope, Secretary to Lord Bute, with later 19th-century additions. The building was significantly modernised by Rowand Anderson Paul and Partners in 1926 and by Neil and Hurd circa 1952.

The principal north-west elevation features the original tower to the left with a blind wall, gun-loops to the ground and 3rd floor, and a corbelled parapet. A circular turnpike stair tower occupies the north-west corner, also corbelled with a gun loop and small window near its top, terminating in a square cap house. The 1761 wing rises 2½ storeys with later Scottish Baronial additions and a timber door with glazed panel. A single-storey crowstepped gable entrance porch projects from the wing, featuring an inset Wauchope armorial panel above the door and a window to the left return. A projecting stone bipartite window sits above. A stone dormer with finial breaks the eaves. A round tower, corbelled and terminating in a square crowstepped gabled cap house, stands in the re-entrant angle with windows at each floor and a gabled dormer to the left return. The later 19th-century addition extends 1½ storeys with irregular fenestration and gableheads with dormers; a small gabled porch and flat-roofed fuel store adjoin.

The north-east elevation presents a blank wall with an off-centre window to the ground and 1st floor left, and a gun loop to the 3rd floor left. A corbelled parapet connects two watch-houses, with a crow-stepped gable and stone gablehead stack bearing a flagpole.

The south-east rear elevation shows the 1564 tower to the right with paired slit windows to the ground floor, single windows to the 1st and 3rd floors, paired windows to the 2nd floor, and a gun loop to the 3rd floor left. The corbelled parapet continues above with a crowstepped gable, stone gablehead stack with two cans, and three single windows to the left return. The 1761 wing extends to the left as a 2½-storey structure with 4-bay regular fenestration, a 2-leaf glazed door to the ground floor right, and later stone gabled dormers breaking the eaves. A 3-storey single-bay section to the left return features a gablehead stack without cans; the rear adjoins the 19th-century wing.

The south-west elevation is irregular and sloping, primarily 1½ storeys with a pair of windows and smaller window to the left, two dormers breaking the eaves, and a small chimney to the wallhead. A modern piended single-storey harled extension extends from the ground floor centre. A slated mansard with bipartite window rises above to the right, with a further dormer to the attic.

Window openings throughout feature 2-pane, 4-pane, 9-pane and 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The late 19th-century replacement roof is laid in slated mansard slate, with modern replacement cast-iron rainwater goods. The parapet walkway drains via projecting stone spouts, one deliberately misaligned to avoid dripping in front of the Queen's Room.

The interior retains panelled timber shutters, ornate plaster cornices, and inscribed beams in the study. The drawing room features a coved ceiling, while the Queen Mary's room is timber panelled. The hall has a decorative tiled floor, and a stone turnpike stair winds through the circular tower.

The property includes a walled garden formed by a random rubble wall with shaped stone copes, creating a rectangular enclosure to the rear. An L-shaped stable range of random rubble construction incorporates a gardener's cottage, featuring timber stable doors and 8-pane timber sash and case windows beneath a slate roof. The cottage forms a single-storey 3-bay structure in coursed rubble with a central door, 8-pane sash and case windows, and a skew gable.

Cakemuir Castle is historically significant as the refuge of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567. Fleeing danger dressed as a page, she rode from Borthwick to Cakemuir across the moors and subsequently to Dunbar. A room within the castle still bears her name. The tower house originally contained few defensive features, limited to gun-loops on the fourth floor (now infilled) and two roofed watch-boxes flanking the west gable chimney, each provided with a stone seat for surveying the countryside to the south and east. The house underwent major renovation in 1915 when it was recorded in good repair after a period of ruin. At that time, timber floors were re-laid between storeys, the parapet restored, and the structure re-roofed at a shallower pitch than the original. It has since been further modernised and resold but retains its surviving mature walled garden with timber-framed glass house, gardener's cottage and stable range positioned to the south-east of the main house.