Castle of Park

This fine building appears outwardly plain, but inside is another matter and gives an insight into the life of a Jacobean laird. The hall is 30 feet long, with a fine fireplace and from it the laird's private stair leads to the bedrooms.

Thomas Hay was given the lands of Park by his father, the last abbot of Glenluce, and built himself this fine new tower house in 1590. In the 1970s, after standing empty for over a century, the tower was repaired by Historic Scotland, present guardians of Glenluce Abbey. In 1990 they leased the tower to the Landmark Trust and it is now available for self-catering holidays for up to 7 people.

Standing, with two other houses, on a tree-fringed plateau above Luce Bay, the building is outwardly plain. Inside, it is another matter. With the walls plastered and the rooms furnished, you gain a very different impression of the life of a Jacobean laird from that given by the stony shells of so many abandoned towers.

The hall is 30 feet long, with a fine fireplace. From it the laird’s private stair leads to bedrooms, each with its own privy (the potential for hide and seek is endless). The wide main stair, in its own tower, has a little room at the top called the cap house, from which you can glimpse the sea.

The eighteenth century brought larger windows to let in more light, the bright clear light of a western peninsula. There are notable gardens to visit nearby, and the rolling fields are grazed by cattle, seemingly more numerous than the human inhabitants.