Publication Account

Date 1980

Event ID 1018433

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018433

Benedict of Peterborough, writing of June 1184, mentions a castle of Hirun which McJannet took to mean Irvine (1938, 91). Today at Irvine there are the ruins of a late sixteenth century fortified townhouse, the so-called Seagate Castle. 'The Seagate Castle', in the words of the editor of the burgh muniments, 'is the only remnant of the ancient civil and ecclesiastical buildings in the burgh which has survived the march of so-called modern improvement, all the others having been entirely cleared away' (Dobie, 1890, xxxii). Little is known of the history of Seagate Castle although it certainly belonged to the Earl of Eglintoun - the arms of the third earl, who died in 1585, have been embedded in the structure (MacGibbon and Ross, 1892, v, 240). Pococke in 1760 described the structure as ruinous (Kemp, 1887, 57) and it is not clear when the castle was abandoned. The walls of the northern portion are in fairly good condition as is the ground storey of the south end of the building, the gables and chimneys. It could possibly be on the site of an earlier work, but there is no evidence for this (Ordnance Survey, Record Cards, Reference NS 33 NW 3).

Information from ‘Historic Irvine: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1980).