Ayton Castle

On the site of the current castle once stood a medieval fortified tower, a Peel Tower, which was destroyed by fire in 1834. The original owners, the Home family, subsequently sold the estate to the Mitchell-Innes family. They commissioned the architect James Gillespie Graham to build a new family seat. The castle, built according to Graham's designs in the “Scottish gothic style,” was completed in 1851. After Graham's death in 1855, Ayton Castle was expanded between 1860 and 1867 under the direction of architects David Bryce and James Maitland. In 1873, the writer Mark Twain visited the castle and took a fireplace as a souvenir, which is now on display at the Mark Twain Museum in Connecticut.