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Galston

This pleasant little town in the Irvine Valley has a splendid Parish Church dating from 1808. One of its ministers, Perthshire-born Robert Stirling, was the inventor of the Stirling Engine.  He died in 1878.

Another church not to be missed is St Sophia’s RC Church, modelled on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Barr Castle is a solid, 15th century tower house once owned by the Lockhart family. An ancient game of handball used to be played against the castle walls by the locals. The castle is now a small museum with many exhibits relating to local history.

On the edge of the town, Loudoun Gowf Club is unique in retaining the game’s old Scots spelling. The course is open to visitors on weekdays.

To the north of the town are the impressive ruins of Loudoun Castle, ancestral home of the Campbells of Loudoun which burnt down in 1941.   In their heyday, the Campbells entertained so lavishly that the castle was called the “Windsor of Scotland”. Three ghosts reputedly haunt it - a Grey Lady, a Phantom Piper and a Benevolent Monk. At one time the great sword of William Wallace was kept within the castle, but it was sold in 1930. Beside its walls is the Auld Yew Tree, under which Hugh, 3rd Earl of Loudoun, prepared the draft of the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England. Today the Loudoun Castle Theme Park, which claims to be the largest in Scotland, fills the grounds of the castle.

Loudoun Castle was the birthplace of Lady Flora Hastings, who shook the monarchy and government to its core in 1839. Queen Victoria was 20 years old at the time, and had been on the throne for just two years. Lady Flora was a Lady of the Bedchamber who contracted a disease which so swelled her abdomen that she appeared pregnant. Gossip raged through the court, and she was shunned, even though doctors confirmed that she wasn’t pregnant, but ill with an enlarged liver. Neither the government nor the Queen did anything to dispel the rumours, and people began to sympathise with the young woman. Soon it was the Queen’s turn to be shunned, and she was shocked when people turned their back on her as she proceeded through London. It wasn’t until Lady Flora was on her deathbed in 1833 in Buckingham Palace that a grudging reconciliation took place. The Campbells were so incensed by Flora’s treatment that when postage stamps were introduced bearing Victoria’s image, family members stuck them onto envelopes upside down.

A mile or so away from Loudoun Castle are the ruins of the medieval Loudoun Kirk, at one time dedicated to St Michael. Flora now lies in the choir, which has been converted into a burial vault for the Campbells of Loudoun. A slim monument stands in the kirkyard to her memory. The Campbells coat-of-arms can still be seen on the choir walls, above the entrance to the vault. Attached to a wall of the ruined kirk is a plaque which commemorates the Belgian paratroopers who trained at Loudoun Castle during the Second World War.