Walled Garden, Cakemuir Castle

Walled Garden, 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. The castle stands 4 miles south-southeast of Pathhead on the east side of a secluded valley near Cakemuir Burn. It is historically notable as the refuge of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567, who fled here dressed as a page from Borthwick and rode across the moors before continuing to Dunbar. A room in the castle still bears her name.

The building is of coursed brown stone with ashlar surrounds and a corbelled parapet. The original tower is roughly rectangular in plan, later enlarged with a 1761 wing and 19th century additions. It underwent significant modernisation by Rowand Anderson Paul and Partners in 1926 and by Neil and Hurd circa 1952, with Scottish Baronial additions incorporated throughout.

The principal northwest elevation features the original tower to the left with a blind wall, gun-loops to the ground and 3rd floor, corbelled parapet, and a circular turnpike stair tower at the northwest corner with its own gun loop and small window terminating in a square cap house. The 1761 wing adjoins with two storeys and later Baronial additions, featuring a timber door with glazed panel and a single-storey crowstepped gable entrance porch with an inset Wauchope armorial panel above the door. Above this is a projecting stone bipartite window. A round tower, corbelled and terminating in a square crowstepped gabled cap house, sits in the re-entrant angle. The later 19th century addition comprises one and a half storeys with irregular fenestration, gableheads, dormers, and a small gabled porch, with a flat-roofed fuel store adjoining.

The northeast elevation presents a blank wall with an off-centre window to the ground and 1st floor left, a gun loop to the 3rd floor left, corbelled parapet connecting two watch-houses, crow-stepped gable, and a stone gablehead stack with flagpole. These watch-houses, roofed structures flanking the west gable chimney, each contained stone seats from which occupants could view the countryside to the south and east.

The southeast 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, and two cans. Three single windows are positioned to the left return. The 1761 wing to the left displays regular two and a half storey fenestration in 4 bays with a 2-leaf glazed door to the ground floor right, later stone gabled dormers breaking the eaves, and a stack at the ridge. A 3-storey single bay to the left return has a gablehead stack.

The southwest elevation is irregular and sloping, primarily one and a half storeys with a pair of windows and a smaller window to the left, two dormers breaking the eaves almost directly above, and a small chimney to the wallhead. A modern piended single-storey harled extension has been added to the ground floor centre. A slated mansard section with a bipartite window sits to the right, with a further dormer to the attic.

Windows throughout have been enlarged and comprise 2-pane, 4-pane, 9-pane, and 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof is a later 19th century replacement piended slate roof. Modern replacement cast-iron rainwater goods and a parapet walkway drained by projecting stone spouts have been installed; one spout is notably 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 Mary's Room is timber panelled. The hall has a decorative tiled floor, and a stone turnpike stair is present in the circular tower.

The castle originally had few defensive features: a series of now-infilled gun-loops on the 4th floor and the two watch-boxes noted above. The property underwent major structural work in 1915 when it was noted to be in good repair. Timber floors were re-laid between storeys, the parapet restored, and the structure re-roofed at a shallower pitch than the original. The 1761 southwest wing was added for Henry Wauchope, Secretary to Lord Bute. The last major additions came in the 19th century for George Wright of Edinburgh, who used it as a summer residence.

The walled garden is a rectangular enclosure to the rear of the property, formed by a random rubble wall with shaped stone copes. It retains a timber-framed glasshouse.

The stable range to the southeast of the main house is L-shaped, built of random rubble with timber stable doors and 8-pane timber sash and case windows, roofed in slate. The associated single-storey gardener's cottage is coursed rubble with a central door, 8-pane sash and case windows, and a skew gable.