Seagate Castle

Seagate Castle stands on the old Seagate in Irvine, a fortified town house rather than a defensive stronghold in the usual sense. Much of the surviving building dates from the sixteenth century, remodelled around 1565 by Hugh Montgomerie, 3rd Earl of Eglinton, and it long served the Montgomerie family as their town residence and dower house. The detailing is Renaissance in feel — moulded windows and carved ornament soften what was once the working seat of a powerful Ayrshire family. A vaulted pend, entered through an arched doorway, still runs through the north range, while the main block carried projecting towers, two rounded and one triangular. At ground level survive guard rooms, a kitchen with its fireplace and serving hatch, and wall recesses, or aumbries, used for storage. Tradition holds that Mary, Queen of Scots was received here in 1563, accompanied by her four attendant Maries. The castle’s decline began when its roof was removed in 1746, after which the shell became a haunt of smugglers and vagrants and suffered further storm damage. It has been a scheduled monument since 1955, and North Ayrshire Council consolidated the ruin in 2010–2011. The building remains bound up with Irvine’s annual Marymass celebrations.