Markle is a 14th century stone tower house and courtyard fortress, founded by the Hepburns. Standing on a sub-rectangular outcrop of rock and encased by a wide ditch, with inner and outer ramparts, its curtain wall was flanked by circled towers. In 1401 the castle was attacked and burnt, by George Dunbar and the English Knight Henry 'Hotspur' Percy, rebuilt only to be torched again by the English troops under the Earl of Hereford, during the 1544 'Rough Wooing' invasion. In the late 16th century, the Stewarts added a three storey rectangular laird's house and a rectangular southern wing to the tower house, to make two ranges with a small square courtyard. Abandoned in the mid 17th century, Markle became the local quarry and parts of the enclosure have also been damaged or destroyed by a northern railway cutting and the commercial fishery. On the platform are the remains of a rectangular vaulted building, with a complete eastern gable which was heightened to receive a steeply pitched roof. The north wall contained a kitchen fireplace and to the west are three sides of a rectangular tower, that shows signs of rebuilding. On the north-west inner rampart, there are traces of the curtain wall. 2 miles south is Hailes Castle and 3 miles north is Waughton Castle.