Gardeners Cottage, Cakemuir Castle

Cakemuir Castle, including walled garden, stable range and cottage

Circa 1564. A four-storey tower house with cap house on a rectangular plan, built for Adam Wauchope, fifth son of Gilbert Wauchope of Niddrie. The castle stands 4 miles south-south-east of Pathhead on the east side of a secluded valley near Cakemuir Burn. An 18th-century wing was added in 1761 for Henry Wauchope, Secretary to Lord Bute, with further 19th-century additions. The building underwent modernisation by Rowand Anderson Paul and Partners in 1926 and by Neil and Hurd circa 1952. It is constructed of coursed brown stone with ashlar surrounds and features a corbelled parapet with enlarged windows.

The principal north-west elevation shows the original tower to the left with a blind wall, gun-loops to the ground and third floors, corbelled parapet, and a circular turnpike stair tower at the north-west corner with a gun-loop and small window near the top, terminating in a square cap house. The 1761 wing to the right has two storeys with later Scottish Baronial additions, a timber door with glazed panel, and a single-storey crowstepped gable entrance porch with an inset Wauchope armorial panel above the door. A window sits to the left return, with a projecting stone bipartite window above and a stone dormer with finial breaking the eaves. A round tower corbelled and terminating in a square crowstepped gabled cap house occupies the re-entrant angle, with windows at each floor, a window and gabled dormer to the left return. A later 19th-century addition presents one and a half storeys with irregular fenestration and gableheads, a small gabled porch to the right return, and an adjoining flat-roofed fuel store.

The north-east elevation comprises a blank wall with an off-centre window to the ground and first floors on the left, a gun-loop to the third floor left, corbelled parapet connecting two watch-houses, a crow-stepped gable, and a stone gablehead stack with 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 first and third floors, paired windows to the second floor, and a gun-loop to the third floor left, continuing the corbelled parapet above with a crowstepped gable, stone gablehead stack, and two cans. Three single windows appear to the left return. The 1761 wing to the left displays two and a half storeys with four-bay regular fenestration and a two-leaf glazed door to the ground floor right, later stone gabled dormers breaking the eaves, and a stack at the ridge between the first and second bay to the left. A three-storey single bay to the left return has a gablehead stack with no cans.

The south-west elevation presents an irregular sloping form, primarily one and a half storeys with a pair of windows and smaller window to the left, two dormers breaking the eaves almost above, and a small chimney to the wallhead. A modern harled single-storey extension lies to the ground floor centre, with a single window to the right, a slated mansard with bipartite window above the right, and a further dormer to the attic.

Windows throughout comprise timber sash and case with two-pane, four-pane, nine-pane, and twelve-pane configurations. The roof is of late 19th-century replacement piended slate with modern 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 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 is defensively modest, featuring only a series of now-infilled gun-loops on the fourth floor and two roofed watch-boxes flanking the west gable chimney, each with a stone seat for viewing the countryside to the south and east.

The interior retains panelled timber shutters, ornate plaster cornices, inscribed beams in the study, a coved ceiling in the drawing room, timber panelling in the Queen Mary's room, and a decorative tiled floor to the hall. A stone turnpike stair occupies the circular tower.

Major renovations occurred in the 19th century under George Wright of Edinburgh, who used the castle during summer months. By 1915, the house was noted as being in good repair and re-occupied, though it had previously been ruinous. Timber floors were re-laid between storeys, the parapet restored, and the structure re-roofed at a shallower pitch than the original.

The estate retains a mature walled garden of random rubble with shaped stone copes forming a rectangular enclosure to the rear of the property. The stable range to the south-east comprises an L-shaped structure of random rubble with timber stable doors and eight-pane timber sash and case windows beneath a slate roof. The adjoining gardener's cottage is a single-storey three-bay building of coursed rubble with a central door, eight-pane sash and case windows, and a skew gable.