Castle of Park

01 / The documented beginning

Two names above the door

The inscription over the entrance gives the castle an unusually precise starting point: work began on 1 March 1590 for Thomas Hay of Park and his wife, Janet MacDowall. Her name appears on the stone in an older spelling, Jonet Makdovel. This is the Castle of Park at Glenluce, in south-west Scotland; a different castle shares the name in the north-east.

The family’s opportunity came through Glenluce Abbey. Thomas’s father, also Thomas Hay, became its commendator in 1560, an administrator of the abbey. HES records that he joined the Reformed Kirk while continuing to live there. Landmark’s history traces the transfer of Park from father to son in 1572.

A tradition says that the younger Thomas reused stone from the abbey. Clayre Percy’s history for the Landmark Trust questions it, pointing to the abbey’s continued use and later records of its good repair. The land connection is much firmer than the story of dismantled monastic walls.

02 / Inside the tower house

A home arranged around heat and service

Park’s L-shaped plan brings a smaller stair tower against the main block. A broad spiral staircase connects its four storeys, with an attic above. High in the inner angle, a small projecting turret carries another stair towards the top of the house. The stepped gables and tall chimneys give the otherwise restrained exterior its distinctive outline.

The ground floor was organised for work: two storage cellars and a kitchen, all reached from a service passage. Above them, the hall had a large fireplace, while the upper rooms had their own hearths and small privies. These were substantial domestic arrangements for a laird’s household.

Clearance work in the early 1970s recovered evidence of the kitchen in use. An iron swee, a pivoting bar from which cooking pots could hang, survived beside the fireplace, with a stone drip tray and a smoke-darkened board above. Details like these make the tower easier to imagine as a working house, with food, fuel and people moving between its floors.

03 / Abandonment and return

How the empty rooms came back to life

The Hays moved their main household to Dunragit around 1830, taking furnishings and panelling with them. Our old article described more than a century of emptiness, but Landmark’s history gives a more varied picture: upper rooms became empty or served as storage, while a farmer occupied the added wings. The estate was sold in 1875.

The eighteenth-century wings were removed in 1951. A 1968 Ordnance Survey visit recorded that only the L-plan building remained, with no trace then visible of the garden wall and gateway described by earlier investigators. Today’s freestanding tower reflects those later changes as well as sixteenth-century design.

Further repairs in 1976–78 made the building secure without creating a finished home. Landmark restored the interior in 1992–93, and its first holiday guests arrived on 24 April 1993.

The old structure also contains modern decorative work. Jennifer Packer painted the sitting-room ceiling and shutters during the Landmark restoration. These details belong to the castle’s renewal, rather than a newly discovered sixteenth-century interior.

04 / Beyond the walls

A tower above the Water of Luce

The raised ground gives Park a strong presence in the valley. Another prominent structure nearby is the railway viaduct. HES’s archive records its eight masonry spans and the opening of the Portpatrick Railway here in 1861. The line closed in 1965, leaving a substantial reminder of a later period of movement through this landscape.

The ground beside the castle holds a less visible story. The heritage designation identifies the area where an enclosed courtyard, service buildings and grounds would have supported the household. Earlier surveyors recorded garden traces which a later visit could no longer find. These records offer glimpses of a larger estate, while leaving its detailed arrangement uncertain.

That distinction matters to the castle’s protection. The tower is Category A listed, while the scheduled monument designation covers surrounding land and explicitly excludes the restored, domestically occupied tower. The modern lawn should not be read as a complete picture of the estate Thomas and Janet knew.

05 / The Green Lady tradition

The figure at an upstairs window

Our 2012 Scottish Paranormal account places a Green Lady at an upstairs window. It identifies her as a servant who was dismissed after becoming pregnant and subsequently died by suicide. The story connects the haunting with someone whose place within the household had become precarious.

HES also records a pregnant servant and a Green Lady. Its brief version omits the dismissal and the window. Those details remain attributed to our older account, rather than independently established by the heritage record.

Neither source identifies the woman, supplies a contemporary record of her death or gives a named witness to the apparition. The accounts preserve a local haunting tradition; they do not establish the biography attached to it. Her story deserves that distinction, especially where later retellings turn an unnamed person’s supposed suffering into a fixed historical event.

06 / The monk and other reports

What survives of the haunting accounts

A second tradition concerns a monk said to have been murdered by being walled up inside the castle. Both our old entry and the HES significance assessment repeat this story. Neither provides a name, date, identified room or an account of remains being discovered.

The Hay family’s real connection with Glenluce Abbey gives the story an evocative setting, but it cannot supply the missing evidence for a particular monk or death. Park was built as a family residence after the Reformation; the monastic connection belongs to its origins and its stories, rather than proof that the tower functioned as a monastery.

The Scottish Paranormal entry also mentions people feeling watched and objects apparently moving between rooms. These reports have no dates, named observers or descriptions of the circumstances in the material preserved. They remain part of the castle’s reported reputation, with no personal HSI encounter, investigation footage or recorded incident claimed in this guide.

07 / Planning a stay

A castle you can book for the night

The Landmark Trust currently lets Castle of Park as self-catering accommodation for seven people, with one double room, two twin rooms and a single. Its official page provides availability and booking details. The practical way to experience the interior is through an arranged stay.

The property has steep, narrow and spiral stairs. Read the access information and discuss any individual mobility requirements with Landmark before booking. Guest parking is beside the building, reached by a track off the main road.

HES records occasional public open days in the past. This does not establish a regular drop-in opening or a future event: check Landmark’s current announcements for any specifically advertised visit. Access information was checked on 15 September 2026. Respect the privacy of people staying here, and treat the ghost traditions as stories to explore without an expectation of a paranormal experience.