Castle Levan

01 / The documented castle

Two towers above the burn

This is the medieval Castle Levan at Gourock, in modern Inverclyde and the historic county of Renfrewshire. Older records also call it Levan Castle or Leven Castle. A neighbouring nineteenth-century mansion acquired the same name; photographs and histories of that later house should not be confused with the tower.

Our original entry placed the castle’s beginnings in the late fourteenth century. The official records are less exact: its listed-building description allows a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century date for the older block, while Historic Environment Scotland’s archaeological account favours the fifteenth century. Both identify an early sixteenth-century addition.

The result is an unusual arrangement of two towers meeting at a corner, beside the steep ravine of the Levan Burn. The Mortons and then the Sempills appear in its ownership history, although published accounts differ over the precise transfer date. The building itself has been Category B listed since 10 June 1971.

02 / Reading the building

Cellars below, a hall above

The old architectural descriptions bring the house’s interior into focus. Writing in 1905, William M. Metcalfe drew on David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross’s survey: two vaulted cellars occupied the ground floor of the earlier tower, and a private stair connected one cellar with the hall above.

A narrow straight stair rose from the ground-floor entrance to the first-floor landing, continuing upwards as a spiral stair. The hall’s windows had deep square recesses with stone seats. These are details of a working household: storage beneath the principal room, separate routes between floors and places to sit beside the available daylight.

Metcalfe followed the architects in suggesting that the projecting stonework beneath the parapet had been carried around both towers when the later wing was added. Their illustration, published in 1887, shows the roofless building and a low vault in the foreground. It records a stage long before the modern restoration, rather than the castle’s present condition.

03 / Evidence beneath the courtyard

Five thousand fragments of everyday life

Excavations recorded in the early 1970s traced the barmkin, the enclosing wall around the castle’s courtyard. Its internal width was about 13.7 metres. Part of the southern tower stood over the trench left by the removal of an earlier wall, helping establish how the site had changed.

A kitchen midden beside the southern wing contained around 5,000 pieces of animal bone and seashell. Pottery dated to the mid-fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was also recovered, along with foundations interpreted as a possible early gatehouse.

The midden is a particularly human part of the record: the discarded remains of meals and household activity. It gives the castle a life beyond its named owners. The possible gatehouse remains an archaeological interpretation; neither discovery identifies a room in which the events of the ghost story supposedly occurred.

04 / The historical proceedings

Lady Marion and the events of 1555

Lady Marion Montgomery is more than a name supplied by a modern ghost guide. Metcalfe’s 1905 county history records proceedings against her on 8 November 1555, citing Robert Pitcairn’s collection of Scottish criminal trials. He identifies her as the widow of William Lord Semple.

The account concerns violence committed by her servants on 17 March 1553. It describes her consenting to the killing of Gilbert Rankin at Lecheland, approving attacks that injured John Fynne and John Roger, and receiving the perpetrators at Castle Laven immediately afterwards.

It also names two captives, Humphrey Malcolmson and Archibald Scherare, brought to the castle and held for twenty-four hours without food or drink. Metcalfe uses the phrase ‘came in the Queen’s will’: she submitted herself to the Crown’s decision over the offences described.

These particulars give the historical account a date, named victims and specific allegations. They do not establish the later story of Marion’s own death. Metcalfe’s passage records neither a death sentence commuted to house arrest nor a husband starving her. His account of the proceedings and the haunting tradition need to be read separately.

05 / The reported White Lady

Where the record becomes a legend

In the version published by Scottish Paranormal in May 2012, Mary of Guise sentences Marion to death for torturing and murdering her tenants, then reduces the punishment to house arrest. Her husband returns from military service, learns what has happened and confines her until she starves. The White Lady is said to be her returning spirit.

Our entry places the beginnings of the sightings in the seventeenth century, following a change of ownership associated with Ardgowan. It supplies no contemporary account for that starting date, and no named witness or dated encounter. The familiar story is therefore preserved here as an attributed tradition.

The husband’s identity also needs care. Metcalfe explicitly places the prosecution after William Lord Semple’s death, while Stravaiging notes Marion’s later marriage to John Campbell of Skipness. A retelling cannot simply have William return from service after the 1555 proceedings.

The original article also preserved a quieter detail: the castle website then said its own occupants had never seen the reputed ghost. That is a statement quoted in 2012, not a claim about today’s residents. No personal HSI encounter or investigation result is claimed in this guide.

06 / A house brought back to life

From roofless walls to a lived-in castle

Castle Levan’s recent history is one of recovery. The restoration account published by Stravaiging credits David and Sheila Pearson, who commissioned architect Ian Begg for the principal refurbishment between 1984 and 1987. Their family home later became a bed and breakfast.

A Rightmove interview first published on 24 August 2018 offers a personal glimpse of that later chapter. Kim and Maria described leaving their London working lives to buy the castle and run the B&B. Income from guests helped them reinvest in the building, including improvements to its bathrooms and kitchen.

Their account brings the setting back to everyday scale: constant gardening, upkeep, log fires and a conservatory overlooking the waterfall. The revived castle continued to demand work as well as affection. That dated interview is useful evidence of how the house was lived in; it should not be treated as a current booking announcement.

07 / Planning a visit

Confirm arrangements before travelling

Castle Levan is private property. Although its history as a B&B is well documented, a current owner-operated booking route or public opening schedule could not be verified for this guide on 15 September 2026. The castle website linked from our original article was unavailable when checked.

That does not establish that the business has closed. It means any stay, interior visit or organised access needs direct confirmation from the current owner or operator before travel. Old accommodation listings and previous guests’ photographs do not provide permission to enter the grounds.

Check that any arrangement concerns the medieval tower in Gourock, rather than the neighbouring mansion. Our exterior photograph was taken in December 2010, and the historical drawing was published in 1887: both help tell the story, while neither certifies today’s access or condition.