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Affleck Castle, also known as Auchenleck Castle, was built on the lands of the Auchenlecks in the 15th century. In the early 18th century it belonged to a family of Reids, who forfeited the castle in 1746 because of their activities as Jacobites. It has not been occupied since 1760, when a new mansion was built.
Affleck Castle is a well-preserved free-standing tower of four storeys and a parapeted garret. It is 18 m tall, and has thick rubble walls, with several mural rooms. A few steps down from the entrance is the basement, which is sub-divided.
The hall, which is on the first floor, has a vaulted ceiling; this supports a withdrawing room. Above the main staircase is an entresol bedroom, almost 2.1 m square, reached by an eleven-step staircase in the east wall. The stairs lead from the hall. The withdrawing room has a spy-hole into the hall below. This would have allowed all movement to the main turnpike stair to be observed. The room has window seats, wall closets, and a shafted fireplace. A step up from this room leads to a circular oratory, equipped with aumbry, piscine, holy-water stoup and stone candle-holders. This room is also vaulted. There is a bedroom in each of the upper floors.
A projection by the door, with a square caphouse, houses the stair. There is another square caphouse over the south-west angle. There are two devices for dropping missiles or liquids on attackers: one over the arched door; and the other on the west front, while the ground floor is equipped with gun loops.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).