The Tullichewan estate was bought from the Colquhouns of Luss by John Stirling of Cordale in 1792. John Stirling was a partner in the firm of William Stirling and Sons, bleachers and printers, of Glasgow and Renton. There is confusion about the date that the castle was built, with 1792 normally being given. However, other sources would lead us to conclude that the castle was not completed until the beginning of the nineteenth century, circa 1808, due to "business misfortunes" according to John Neill in his Records and Reminiscences of Bonhill Parish.
The castle was designed by the architect Robert Lugar, who also designed Balloch Castle. It is the first example in Scotland of an asymmetrical Gothic house. The grounds of the house were laid out by Alexander Naysmith, landscape gardener, architect and, most famously, artist, principally remembered for his portrait of Robert Burns.
John Horrocks junior of Horrocks and Company, cotton manufacturers, of Preston, purchased the castle in 1817 and lived there until the death of his wife and sold it in 1843 to William Campbell of J & W Campbell, Glasgow merchants who pioneered the modern department store. The estate remained in the Campbell family until the twentieth century. The last owner of the castle was J Scott Anderson, who lived there from about 1930. Mr Anderson vacated the castle when it was requisitioned early on in the Second World War for use by the WRNS and Naval personnel. Latterly the castle was used as accommodation for workers at the Torpedo factory. After that it lay unused for years and it was eventually demolished by being blown up in 1954.
Today, little remains of Tullichewan Castle and the estate, since a dual carriageway now crosses the site of the former castle and the estate is covered by housing developments and the Vale of Leven Hospital. The former stables and a fragment of the tower can be seen next to the Alexandria by-pass, about a hundred yards south of the roundabout above Balloch.
The south lodge gatehouse can still be seen on Main Street, Alexandria, just north of the entrance to Christie Park. The old walled orchard, which belonged to the estate, is now part of Tullichewan caravan site.
It is a sad end to the castle that was described so evocatively by Donald MacLeod in Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and Loch Lomond:
"One can hardly conceive anything more picturesque than the castellated mansion-house with its ivied towers, noble tree-adorned pleasure grounds, fertile fields and grand background of heathery hills".