Archaeological work conducted by CFA Archaeology Ltd at Howden House in Livingston has identified traces of what may be an earlier structure on the site. Howden House was completed in about 1770, possibly for Thomas Farquharson of Howden. In 1834 the house was purchased by Henry Raeburn, son of artist Sir Henry Raeburn. It was later the property of the daughter of the noted local industrialist James Young, who lived here until her death in 1931, when the house was sold to Sir Adrian Baillie of Polkemmet. Howden House was purchased in 1946 by the Ministry of Agriculture, who used the estate to test new agricultural machinery. The 1960s saw the growth of Livingston New Town in the surrounding area, with the immediate grounds of the house becoming Howden Park. Howden House itself was bought by Livingston Development Corporation in 1966 for use as a community centre and meeting rooms. The property has since lain in a derelict state and is included in the Scottish Conservation Trust's Buildings at Risk Register.
An historic building survey was carried out at Howden House by CFA Archaeology Ltd in March 2011. This study identified that the existing ground and first floors both had a wall in excess of 2.5m thick, which was unusually large for an 18th century building, and it was considered possible that these could represent the original re-used remains of an earlier 15th or 16th century tower as has been previously postulated by the RCAHMS. In order to identify whether any remains of an earlier structure survived within the footprint of the current house WoSAS recommended this programme of test pitting.
In two of the test pits, a wall was identified. This wall survived to a height of 0.3m and sat on limestone mortar foundations, which had been built directly onto the bedrock, with no foundation trench visible. It was aligned approximately NNE-SSW, and underlay the north-south aligned wall of the eastern wing of the house. It was not possible to determine categorically whether this was an earlier wall or part of the foundations of the current wall of the house, though its slight divergence in alignment from the current wall does suggest it could represent a surviving element of an earlier structure.