page_title: Tunnels in popular culture
section_title: Scotland
hierarchical_section_title: Tunnels in popular culture / Examples / Scotland
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of Caldwell House
context_page_description: Mysterious tunnels or "secret passages" are a common element of the local folklore tradition in Europe. In Norwegian a secret tunnel-like passage is called a lønngang and in Swedish a lönngång. Such tunnels are said to physically link prominent places such as country houses, castles, churches, ancient monuments and other, often medieval, buildings.
  Legends about the existence of secret tunnels usually involve improbably long subterranean passages, sometimes running under major obstacles such as rivers and lakes to reach their destinations. Religious buildings, monks and the landed gentry are particularly common elements in many tunnel stories.
  It is unlikely that many of the recorded tunnels exist physically, for this is a characteristic of their very nature; their significance lies in the number of similar legends of tunnels that have arisen and in connection with the more esoteric notions of channels or paths of earth energy, and such.
context_section_description: Blackness Castle in Lothian is said to have a tunnel linking it with the House of Binns, about three kilometres distant. A tunnel is said to run from Stanecastle near Irvine to Eglinton Castle and another from Stanecastle to Seagate Castle in Irvine, complete with a mythical piper. Monkredding was a property of Kilwinning Abbey and a tunnel is said to link the two properties. Another tunnel is said to run from Stanecastle to Dundonald. A subterranean passage was found by workmen at Stanecastle in the 19th century.
  A tunnel is said to run from near Ravenscraig Castle down to the Annick Water just up stream of Lainshaw Castle. The tunnel was reportedly crawled through by the grandfather of a local man and may be related to the drainage of the nearby, now flooded, Hillhouse quarry, the Water Plantation area, and other Lainshaw estate lands.
  A tunnel is said to run from Loudoun Castle under the River Irvine to Cessnock Castle in Galston, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
  Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire was built on top of a cave system, the castle's previous name was 'Cove', Scots for cave. The Marquess of Ailsa sent his piper into the cave and he was never seen again however, according to the legend, the sound of bagpipes can still be heard at the piper's brae that lies above the caverns.
  A tunnel is said to run from the old Giffen Castle near Beith to the now abandoned farm of Bank of Giffen; some years back some children are said to have found and made their way safely through the tunnel.
  Cleeves Cove cave, the site of the Elfhame, is said to be connected to Loudoun Hill. It is reported that once the Laird of Auchenskeich's collie dog entered the cave at its entrance above the Dusk Water and came out at Loudoun Hill near Darvel, many miles away. The end of the Cleeves Cove system is said to have never been found. Mauchline Castle is said to be linked to Kingencleugh Castle by a tunnel.
  A tunnel is said to run the one and a half miles from Craufurdland Castle to Dean Castle in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. It was used to provision Dean Castle when it was besieged for several months in the time of Edward I, and the siege was only abandoned when the besieged hung several freshly killed sheep over the wall and offered them to the attackers. The tunnel entrance was only blocked up in the early 19th century. Cuthbertson records the tradition of a tunnel running from Dean Castle down to the Kilmarnock Water near the old Begbie's Tavern of Burn's fame. This tunnel is said to have become a public sewer.
  Greenan Castle is said to be linked by a tunnel to St John's Tower at Montgomerieston in Ayr. Stories of it containing skeletons in chains and the entrance being found circulated in the 1950s.
  A local tradition was that an underground passage ran from Caldwell House to the old Lugton Inn (now demolished), under the Lugton Water. A search by owners in the cellars did not reveal any signs of a hidden passage.
  Persistent rumours exist of a tunnel which is said to run from Kilwinning Abbey, under the 'Bean Yaird', below the 'Easter Chaumers' and the 'Leddy firs', and then underneath the River Garnock and on to Eglinton Castle. No evidence exists for it, although it may be related to the underground burial vault of the Montgomeries, which does exist under the old abbey, or to the main sewer that would have led from the monastery to the river.
  In the village of Carmunnock near Glasgow a tunnel is said to have connected the parish church with dwellings used by the monks on what is now Busby Road. No sign of the tunnel has yet been found.
  A submarine passage is said to run from the Monks' Cave on Little Cumbrae at Stor Hill to Kingarth on the Isle of Bute.
  A tunnel was said to have run between James V's Boghouse Castle to the nearby village of Crawfordjohn in South Lanarkshire. King James had built the castle for his mistress the daughter of Carmichael of Crawford.
  At Strathaven Castle in South Lanarkshire tunnels are recorded in local tradition as running from the castle to the Sweetie's Brae, Mill Brae, and the Tower. Road works in the 19th century did 
caption: Caldwell House circa 1910[25]
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