Murieston Castle is a ruined

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

, dating from the 16th century, west of

West Calder West Calder ( sco, Wast Cauder, gd, Caladar an Iar) is a village in the council area of West Lothian, Scotland, located four miles west of Livingston, West Lothian, Livingston. Historically it is within the County of Midlothian. The village was ...

, west of the Murieston Water, at Murieston Castle Farm,

West Lothian West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its shires of Scotland, historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geogra ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

.Coventry Martin (1997) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p. 264 It is a scheduled monument and between 1971 and 2018 it was a

Category B listed This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland, which are among the listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key The organization of the lists in th ...

building.

History

Murieston Castle had become ruinous by the early 19th century when it was restored around 1824. It has been described as being over-restored, and having the character of a folly. The restoration was for John Keir who bought Wester Murieston in 1819.

Structure

The castle was oblong, the walls being of rubble, two

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

s high. At first-floor level there is a roofless turret,

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led out in the original building. The tower is about long, running north-west to south-east, and broad. The ground-floor interior has been gutted and it has an earthen floor. There is a fore-stair to the upper storey. A double doorway carries a

medallion A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

with arms in spandrel, dated 1824.

References

{{Castles in West Lothian Castles in West Lothian Listed castles in Scotland Ruins in West Lothian Scheduled Ancient Monuments in West Lothian