Cardoness Castle
Cardoness Castle near Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway is a well-preserved fifteenth-century tower house built by the McCulloch family, one of the finest Scottish tower houses in the southwest and a property in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. Rising to five storeys with well-preserved mural stairs, window embrasures and corbelled parapets, the walls stand to their full height with many original architectural features intact. The tower house is set above the Fleet estuary with views toward the Solway Firth and the distant hills of Cumbria. The village of Gatehouse of Fleet nearby is an attractive eighteenth-century planned cotton town, and the wider Stewartry landscape of rolling hills, sandy estuaries and ancient woodland is one of the most scenic areas of southwest Scotland.