Scheduled MonumentsScotlandBrigend Castle

Brigend Castle

Scotland
HES SM5268
Nation
Scotland
Boundary

Scheduled area

© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © Historic Environment Scotland

Overview

History & significance

Brigend Castle is a sixteenth-century fortified tower house located in Ayrshire, Scotland. The structure represents a typical example of Scottish baronial domestic architecture from the early modern period, built to serve both residential and defensive purposes for a local landowning family. The castle survives as a substantial stone-built tower, characteristic of the tower house tradition that dominated Scottish castle construction between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its construction reflects the period when such structures provided security and status for minor nobility and gentry across southwest Scotland during a time of relative political consolidation following the medieval period.

Brigend Castle is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5268. View the official record →

About this monument

Questions & answers

What is Brigend Castle?

Brigend Castle is a sixteenth-century fortified tower house located in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5268.

Who is responsible for protecting Brigend Castle?

Brigend Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM5268.

What other scheduled monuments are near Brigend Castle?

Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Alloway Kirk (0.4 km), Alloway,motte (0.6 km), Wallace's Stone,cross-incised stone (1.1 km).

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Everything a full report reveals about Brigend Castle

This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Brigend Castle's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:

Overview
An interactive map of the location with every monument and battle plotted, and a plain-language history built only from what the record holds.
Monuments
The legally protected scheduled monuments around the location, each with its period, type and significance.
Battlefields
The battles and sieges fought on this ground, mapped and set on a timeline of the wider conflict.
Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Stat Accounts
The parish Statistical Accounts of the 1790s and 1830s, describing life, work and population here.
Civil War
The Civil War fighting, garrisons and recorded militaria in this area, woven into the arc of 1642 to 1651.
Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
Local Names
What the street and field names around here actually mean, and the history buried inside them.
Historical Maps
Ordnance Survey maps from the 1800s, layered over the location as it stands today.
Literature
The books, county histories, charters and archives that mention this place, quoted with their sources.
Legal
The protected sites nearby and the metal-detecting, access and treasure laws that apply to this ground.
Spotlight
A deep dive into the most remarkable, lesser-known history of the place, traced back to the record.
Target Zones
For detectorists: the most promising ground to search nearby, ranked by confidence, with what to expect.
Timeline
The whole story of the location told era by era, from prehistory to the present day.
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Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.

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The ground beneath

The bedrock under Brigend Castle

Brigend Castle stands on Inverclyde Group, bedrock that formed in the Osagean. The rock here is sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.