Baldoon Castle

Baldoon Castle is a ruined tower house which sits within a working farm on the south side of the River Bladnoch. Today it overlooks the disused Baldoon Airfield, which was once fertile farmland, and to the south and west the low hills are interspersed with marshy land. It is likely that the location was chosen to control the site of an early river crossing. The remains consist of an 8 metre high wall some 20 metres long, together with fragments of the gable ends and part of a cross wall, all of which are about a metre thick. In addition are sections of a garden wall and a 17th century pair of gate pillars.

The lands of Baldoon had long been forfeited by the Douglas family when they were granted to Sir John Dunbar, the second son of Sir Alexander Dunbar of Westfield in Moray, in February 1534. He had acquired the barony of Mochrum through marriage to the Dunbar heiress, and Baldoon was not the only estate in the area that he acquired that year. The Dunbars retained Baldoon until the latter 17th century, when the heiress married Lord Basil Hamilton. Their grandson became the Earl of Selkirk, and Baldoon remained with that family into the 19th century. Apart from a Walter Scott ghost story, there is little known about Baldoon, but the remains show clear evidence of repeated reworking, so that there is not any evidence to support the idea that it may have been 16th century – such as vaulted basement rooms. Even the layout cannot be ascertained.

HES Canmore database entry