skip to main content
Menu
  • Blog
    • Art & design
    • Castles
    • Cycling
    • Edinburgh
    • Edinburgh Festival
    • Food & drink
    • General
    • History
    • Music
    • Sport
    • Walking
    • Whisky
    • Wildlife
  • Castles
    • Glossary
    • Mottes
    • Stay in a castle
    • Castle blog posts
    • Alphabetical list of castles
    • Castles divided by county
    • Photos of castles
    • Castles we've visited
  • History
    • Castles
    • Ancient history
      • barrows
      • brochs
      • cairns
      • caves
      • chambered cairns
      • cists
      • crannogs
      • cursus monuments
      • forts
      • henges
      • rock art
      • sacred sites
      • souterrains
      • standing stones
      • stone circles
    • Pictish history
      • Pictish stones
      • Pictish sites
      • Pictish placenames
    • Clans
      • Surnames
      • Trace your ancestors
      • Tartan
    • Trace your ancestors
  • Culture
    • Music
      • Bands & musicians
      • Music links
    • Film
    • Television
    • Placenames
      • Pictish placenames
  • Eat
  • Drink
    • Scottish beer
    • Scottish gin
    • Scottish vodka
  • Stay
  • Travel guide
    • City guides
    • Car hire
    • Airports
  • Walking
    • Munros
    • West Highland Way
  • Photos
    • ancient sites
      • Dark Age sites
      • megalithic sites
      • other carved stones
      • Pictish sites
      • Roman sites
    • buildings
    • miscellaneous
    • places in Scotland
  • Offers
  • Home
  • blog
Contrasting castles on a chilly day

With Christmas approaching comes the inevitable trip to Tillicoultry for Christmas shopping. In an attempt to balance out the shopping with something more interesting, we stopped off at a couple of castles on the way, both of which we had failed to visit properly on previous occasions.

A previous attempt to visit Almond Castle had to be aborted when the car broke down before we even got there. On another day we had managed to get to Airth Castle, but as wedding guests were in the process of arriving we decided to leave it for another day.

Today however, we had success at both castles!

It was a chilly day, with frozen snow and plenty of ice on the ground. We took a slight detour off the M9 and parked at Muiravonside Church, then walked along the footpath next to the Union Canal, which was frozen.

After a couple of hundred metres on the canal’s towpath, we cut into the former Whitecross Industrial Park, now cleared of all buildings except for Almond Castle. It was quite a bleak sight, with overgrown grasses, rubbish strewn about, old fences, and acres of icy concrete.

It was pretty treacherous underfoot, but we picked our way carefully across the ice, and got gradually closer to the castle.

Built in the 15th century by the Crawford family and known originally as Haining Castle, its still stands to its full height of four storeys and is a substantial and impressive building. Walking around the bottom of the thick walls, there are the remains of various later buildings and wings, including this crumbling wall next to the north wall of the castle.

A window in the west wall shows the arched vaulting of the basement roof, which has now partly fallen in, revealing part of the first floor above.

Continuing around the castle, projecting from the east wall are the remains of a new wing built in the late 16th century by Thomas Livingston of Haining.

Although the main entrance was in the east wall, access to the castle’s interior is now easiest at first floor level within the re-entrant angle between the main tower and a smaller wing, where part of the wall has fallen.

On the first floor there would probably have been a main hall, lit by large windows with arched surrounds.

The second and third floors were wood, carried on beams. The square holes for the beams, and the stone corbels that supported them, can still be seen on the walls.

Looking up, the massive vaulted ceiling of the top floor can be seen. Open at both ends, and with a section missing haven fallen in, it seemed in a precarious state, so we didn’t venture in any further.

Apart from the danger from above, the floor wasn’t looking too safe either, with a massive hole down into the basement.

With little scope for safely exploring the interior, we headed back outside, and found the original main doorway in the east wall, now partially hidden by undergrowth.

Feeling the cold, we headed back across the ice towards the towpath, stopping to take a final picture of Almond Castle (which was renamed in the 17th century by Sir James Livingston, who had been given the title of Lord Almond).

Back in the car, we continued on our way towards Tillicoultry, but took another detour just before crossing the River Forth to Airth.

In contrast to Almond Castle, Airth Castle is in very good condition, and is now a hotel.

Although another wedding was about to start, we were given permission to wander around outside the castle. Dating from several periods, the main façade is early 19th century, but is attached to the oldest part, a 15th century tower.

The castle stands on a steep slope, with a terrace cut out to the rear of it. The old tower was extended in the early 16th century with the addition of a new four bay wing.

At the far end of this new wing another wing was added at right angles in 1581, with a square stair tower built into the angle between, topped off with twin circular turrets.

At the top of the old tower is a crenellated parapet.

The late 16th century wing has carved pediments on its dormer windows.

Walking back around to the front of the castle we had another look at the new façade, built between 1807 and 1809, and not really in keeping with the buildings to which it is attached.

Next to Airth Castle is Airth Old Parish Church, which dates back to the 12th century but is now in ruins, superseded by a newer church in Airth village.

Unfortunately that was the end of the interesting part of the day, and after delaying the inevitable for as long as possible, it was off to Tillicoultry!

Like this:

Like Loading...

Latest blog posts

The lost tower of Rakestonleis
23rd of July 2022 •
The three castles of Tolibothwell
7th of April 2020 •
Where to buy beer in Scotland during the Coronavirus lockdown
26th of March 2020 •
Cherry blossom in Edinburgh
23rd of April 2019 •
A dreich day of Dumfriesshire castles
13th of March 2019 •
Tweed Valley walks and Elibank Castle
30th of April 2018 •
Red squirrels at Eskrigg Reserve (and some castles)
6th of April 2018 •
Old and new Comiston Houses
29th of March 2016 •
Quintinshill rail disaster parade
23rd of May 2015 •
Cycling along Silverknowes Esplanade in Edinburgh
5th of April 2015 •
more blog posts....

Blog categories

art & design

15 posts

castles

88 posts

cycling

24 posts

Edinburgh

67 posts

Edinburgh Festival

7 posts

food & drink

4 posts

general

41 posts

history

143 posts

music

2 posts

sport

4 posts

walking

57 posts

whisky

1 posts

wildlife

41 posts

Follow us on bloglovin'

Stravaiging around Scotland Stravaiging around Scotland

Most popular posts

Yester Castle and the Goblin Ha’
19th of June 2011 •
West Highland Way 2006 – Day 1
16th of July 2006 •
Ancient sites on Lewis
15th of June 2006 •
Calton Hill and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
19th of May 2013 •
Loch Turret and Ben Chonzie
21st of October 2006 •
Standing stones in Edinburgh
28th of August 2010 •
Doors Open Day Edinburgh 2012
24th of September 2012 •
Castles and Pictish stones in the north of Scotland
13th of April 2013 •
Hot air ballooning over Scotland
2nd of April 2009 •
Walking around Gosford House and gardens
20th of June 2014 •
more blog posts....

Blogroll

Ailish Sinclair

BikELove Scotland

Edinburgh Drift

From Hill to Sea

isleofronalog

Jardine's Book of Martyrs

Kelsey Jackson Williams

Marc Calhoun

Scotland with The Wee White Dug

Scottish Crannogs

Senchus

The Hazel Tree

The History Girls Frae Scotland

The Urban Prehistorian

Walkhighlands

  • advertisement
  • advertisement
  • advertisement

Related pages

A trek to the top of Schiehallion
A trek to the top of Schiehallion
Walking in the woods above Pitlochry
Walking in the woods above Pitlochry
Stormy Portobello and birdlife on the River Tyne
Stormy Portobello and birdlife on the River Tyne
An underground adventure in southern Midlothian
An underground adventure in southern Midlothian
Baby squirrels at Callendar House
Baby squirrels at Callendar House
Exploring the Carmichael estate
Exploring the Carmichael estate
Published on the 8th of December 2012 at 10:03 pm. Updated on the 20th of July 2013 at 10:00 am.

Leave a comment

back to the top of the page

Connect with us

Like us on Facebook

Receive our newsletter

Follow us on Twitter

Tweets by Stravaig_Aboot

Quick links

Stay in a Scottish castle
Edinburgh Festival accommodation
Hotels in Scotland
Car hire in Scotland
Places to eat and drink in Scotland
Castles in Scotland
Trace your Scottish ancestors
Scottish clans
Standing stones in Scotland
The Picts
Pictish symbol stones
Pictish placenames
Scottish bands and musicians
Scottish films
Scottish TV shows
West Highland Way

About

Andy Sweet above Fast Castle

Stravaiging around Scotland is written, photographed and researched by Andy Sweet.
read more....

Cookies

To make this site work properly we use cookies to store information on your computer. Click here to read more.
© 2003 - 2023 Andy Sweet / Stravaiging around Scotland. Powered by WordPress. Hosted by Tsohost.
%d bloggers like this: