Auchenbowie Castle

Auchenbowie House is a large and impressive tower house which dates back to the 17th century. It has been extended repeatedly over the years, but the core building is an L-shaped building with a tower occupying the re-entrant angle. It sits on high land overlooking the Auchenbowie Burn, a minor watercourse that flows southwards into the River Carron. Today it sits within private gardens, park and farmland, and cannot be seen from the public roads. The lands of Auchenbowie were held Robert Cunningham of Polmaise in July 1502, and had been sold to Robert Bruce, provost of Stirling, by April 1511. Bruce was a younger son of Sir Alexander Bruce of Airth, and therefore descended from an illegitimate son of King Robert I. He was dead by 1515, suggesting that Auchenbowie was purchased in order to provide an estate for his children. He was followed as laird of Auchenbowie by his son John, John’s son Robert, and Robert’s son John, who is mentioned in documentation of 1579. John’s son Alexander may have predeceased him at the age of 19 or 20 in 1606, leaving an infant son Robert. This Robert was followed by another Robert, and it is not clear which of these was one of the Commissioners for supply for the county of Stirling in 1643 & 1644, but the second Robert was the last heir in the male line, mentioned in 1670, leaving two daughters, Janet and Margaret. Auchenbowie does not appear as a property of note on Timothy Ponts map of the area, meaning that by, say 1590-1600 there was no tower house here. It therefore seems likely that it was one of the Roberts who founded the building we see today, and prior to this they had lived in their town house in Stirling (traditionally 39 St John Street).

In 1695, the long and peaceful occupation of Auchenbowie by the Bruce’s took a fateful step towards its end. In that year, presumably soon after his marriage to Janet Bruce, the elder daughter of the laird Robert, or after Robert’s death, an instrument of sasine was issued in favour of Captain William Bruce, the eldest son of William Bruce of Newton, another descendant of the Bruces of Airth. In 1699, Captain William murdered the Elphinstone laird of Airth, and then fled abroad, leaving his wife behind. His outlawry and forfeiture seemed inevitable, and so his wife assigned the lands and barony of Auchenbowie to her younger sister Margaret, who was married to Major George Monro. The arms of Monro and Bruce appear together with the initials GMMB on a panel above the doorway in the octagonal tower in the re-entrant angle of the old house. Whilst there is no date, it is clear that Monro wished to either record his acquisition of the estate, or else significant works carried out. Monro was an accomplished commander, having defeated the Jacobite army at Dunkeld in 1689. His elder son was Alexander, and his younger George, whose unsuccessful defence of Fort William Henry appears in the novel Last of the Mohicans. Alexanders son George served as a surgeon for the government forces at Culloden, and sold Auchenbowie to his cousin Alexander, the foundation Professor of Anatomy at the Edinburgh Medical School in 1744. Alexander was also an army surgeon, and treated the wounded on both sides at Sheriffmuir in 1715 and Prestonpans in 1745. Auchenbowie appears as a large rectangular house at the centre of a formal estate on General Roy’s map c1750, but Alexander did not live at the house, instead carrying out alterations and extensions for his eldest son, John, before his death in 1767 from cancer. John was an advocate, but made no will, so when he died in 1789 the estate was divided between his daughters, Jane and Isabella. Jane received the house, and lived until 1835, Isabella until 1814. Subsequently the house remained a private home, being altered and extended several times, and was placed on the market in 2024.

HES Canmore database entry