Go to the Main Scottish Cave and Mine Database Search Page

Wallace's Cave [Mauchline]

Mauchline, west of Auchinleck House, Ayrshire.

Wallace's Cave in the Lugar Gorge at Auchinleck is an 18th century grotto (a chamber cut into the local red sandstone) contemporary with Dr Johnson's Summerhouse, also located on the Auchinleck Estate. It shows superior workmanship in its construction, possibly being the enlargement of a pre-existing cave.

The cave or grotto lies downstream of the confluence of the Dippol Burn with the River Lugar and is reached via a once well formed path, however access is now hazardous due to the condition of the cliff edge path and the vertical drop into the River Lugar.

The 'cave' is a Category B Listed Building that is reached via a narrow path and some rock cut steps that follow the River Lugar gorge. Lying within a side gorge cut by a small burn the final approach requires the crossing of the burn.

Alternative Names: Wallace's Cave [6]

Notes: Masons chisel marks are very clear on the walls and their work created a chamber with a floor area of approximately 14 square feet with prominent rib vaults that rise from the four corners meeting at the central roof apex, thus creating the impression, deliberately or not, of a cross or Saltire. The cave height is approximately ten feet and access is via a pointed seven foot high arched doorway, now minus its door, with one small, similarly shaped window to left as seen from the outside. The window shows no obvious sign of having been glazed.

The eminent antiquarian John Smith visited the area circa 1895 recording historic sites but makes no reference to the two caves on the estate. It has been suggested that this or a previous cave dates from the late 13th or 14th century. Warrick, writing in 1899, makes no reference to Wallace's Cave at this site although he mentions one near Lugar in the Cubs' Glen on the Glenmuir Water.

John Thomson's map of 1832 does not mark the cave however the natural feature Kemp's Castle and the ruins of Ochiltree Castle and Auchinleck Castle are shown. The 1857 OS map shows a path leading to the site with no cave indicated, however by 1896 it is recorded. The 1908 map records the cave however the access path is no longer shown.