Susan's Adventures: Jul 3, 2009

Well, the heat wave has broken and I am thrilled. It was drizzly all day, but that is SO much better than the heat and humidity we have had over the last few days. Last night, I thought I would die—the room was so hot, even with the fan right on me. And you can’t close the windows, so we had mosquitoes visiting us, too. Great fun.

Ray formulated a plan to visit 4 castles, 2 abbeys, and a lighthouse today, so we headed out right after breakfast.

Threave Castle was our first stop. It stands on an island in the River Dee, a massive 14th century tower built by Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway. It was a ¾ mile walk down to the boat then a short boat trip over to the castle. This was one of the tower-type castles. It rained the whole time we were there, but it was still very nice. We were the only ones on the island! We had the castle to ourselves and it was fun to pretend that it was in the olden days and we were safe inside our stone castle with the thick walls.

Legends tell that Threave Island was the home of the ancient rulers of Galloway. The tall tower here now was built in 1369. By the time he died in 1400, he had become the 3rd Earl of Black Douglas, and was the most powerful magnate in southern Scotland.
Archibald’s castle comprised a tall tower house almost 100ft high, surrounded by a large complex of other buildings which are now all gone. They included an outer hall, where Archibald held court, additional living quarters for retainers, etc, and a harbour.The tower house, one of the first of its type built in Scotland, was five storeys high, and housed storage and service accommodation in the lower floors, with Archibald’s private suite of rooms above. The walls were 10ft thick, with only small windows facing the island. The battlements presented a formidable defence, with an overhanging timber hoarding enabling the garrison to keep attackers at bay.

By 1450 the Black Douglases were so powerful they had to be removed. The 8th Earl of Douglas took precautionary measures to defend himself. He demolished all the ancillary buildings to make way for a purpose-built artillery wall. This state-of-the-art defence still survives. It succeeded in keeping James II at bay during the siege of 1455: the garrison surrendered only after being bribed by the king.

As we walked back to the car park, I found myself amazed at the stone wall that lined the pathway. There is an art to stone wall-building. In most cases I have seen, there is no martar holding the stones together, yet they have stood strong and stabile for hundreds of years. This particular farm that the path lined had very friendly cows. One of them practically jumped over another to get over to us as we passed. Then he/she just stood close and watched us and let me take her/his picture. Very nice friends.

Our next stop was Cardoness Castle. Cardoness Castle is a fine example of a Scottish tower-house castle. It was built in the later 15th century as the fortified residence of the McCullochs. They were a prominent Galloway family, who rubbed shoulders with royalty. But they were also noted for their lawlessness, even against their own. In 1501, Ninian McCulloch of Cardoness was prosecuted for breaking into a barn and stealing 1,500 assorted beasts – the property of his own mother!The McCullochs were particularly noted for their long and bitter feud with their neighbours, the Gordons. This ultimately led to their downfall. In the 17th century, they were forced out of Cardoness. They didn’t go quietly. Alexander McCulloch and his son, Godfrey, both committed murderous acts against the Gordons. Young Godfrey was eventually executed on ‘the Maiden’, one of the last to die on Edinburgh’s equivalent of the guillotine.

Cardoness Castle was built primarily as a family residence for a well-to-do Galloway family with aspirations. The McCullochs were already substantial landed gentry in Wigtownshire by the time Gilbert McCulloch acquired Cardoness, probably through marriage, around 1460.The new lords opted to build a new residence in the latest fashion. Their lofty six-storey tower house is effectively a smaller version of the one built at Threave Castle by Archibald ‘the Grim’, Lord of Galloway, a century earlier.The dour simplicity of the tower’s exterior belies its well-planned interior and quality fixtures. The bottom two floors housed storage, as was usual; this included a grim two-storey pit-prison, which was very odorous for some reason—hopefully not for the first one that comes to mind, though. The upper floors were devoted to the family’s use. The third floor comprised a large dining hall with a huge fireplace and wall cupboard where the family’s best tableware was displayed—maybe the first china cabinet, huh? The fourth floor was also originally one large room, possibly housing the great four-poster bed.

Cardoness Castle was also built with defence clearly in mind. The tower’s walls are over 8 feet thick, and the window openings are mostly small. The ground floor walls are pierced by gunholes that look like inverted keyholes. This form of defence, for use with new-fangled hand-guns, was introduced in the late 1440s.The entrance doorway had two doors: an outer wooden door and an inner iron yett (a cross-barred gate). The tower house and external buildings, which included a great hall where the lord presided over his baron’s court, were all enclosed within a formidable stone perimeter wall that has now largely disappeared. There were beautiful pink roses climbing the castle walls and a nice spiral staircase.

Next stop was MacLellan’s Castle. is named after Sir Thomas MacLellan of Bombie (d. 1597). Sir Thomas was provost of Kirkcudbright and a powerful man in local politics. Following the Protestant Reformation in 1560, he acquired the site and buildings of the convent of Greyfriars, established in the town by James II in 1449, and set about building himself a new residence in its place. By 1582, MacLellan’s Castle was sufficiently complete for him to move in. Five years later, he and his second wife, Grissel, entertained their sovereign, James VI, in this spacious house.Alas, following Sir Thomas and Lady Grissel’s death, the family fell on hard times. They ran up huge debts, chiefly through their involvement in the Ulster Plantations. By 1742, Sir Thomas’s descendant, William MacLellan, Lord Kirkcudbright, was working as a humble glover in Edinburgh. The family home was stripped of its roof and emptied of its contents. The neglected ruin came into state care in 1912.

The design of MacLellan’s Castle was part of a deliberate and self-conscious change in tower-house building in Jacobean Scotland. Gone was the obsession with security that had dominated the rather dour towers of previous centuries (eg, Threave, Orchardton and Cardoness). In their place arose residences more notable for domestic comfort and conspicuous displays of wealth. Thomas MacLellan did not dispense entirely with defence, but he reduced it to a minimum. The castle’s small number of wide-mouthed gunholes at ground-floor level and the pistol-holes high above were intended to warn off individuals rather than armies.The castle has an unusual ground plan.

Based on a standard L-plan design, it has an additional tower in the SE corner, and two other smaller projections between the main block and the entrance wing. Both allowed occupants to move more easily around the house, as well as providing increased accommodation. All in all, there were about 15 family rooms. Internally, the house is substantially complete, save for its roof, fixtures and fittings. The stone-vaulted ground floor contains the kitchen and storage cellars. The family rooms are on the upper floors. They include a great hall on the first floor, measuring about 36 feet by 19 feet, with a capacious fireplace whose stone lintel is almost 13 feet long. Hidden in the fireplace’s rear is a rare survival of a laird’s lug (literally ‘lord’s ear’) through which the master of the house could eavesdrop and spy on guests gathered in the great hall from a hidden closet behind.

It was so interesting to see a castle that was made more for comfort than for defence. In fact, the first thing we noticed when we entered was the MUCH wider entry stairway. For defence reasons, older castles had tighter, narrower spiral stairways so that invaded enemies would have a difficult time making it up to the higher levels of the castle.

When we left the castle, in a strange turn of events, Ray and I actually agreed on which way to turn at the next road. This actually startled me. “Yeah,” said Ray. “But YOU can’t be wrong ALL the time.”
We were sure that since we agreed on the directions, we must surely be wrong, but no, we did indeed arrive at Dundrennam Abbey in no time at all.

Dundrennan Abbey was founded in 1142 by Fergus, Lord of Galloway, with the help of King David I of Scotland. The white-robed Cistercian monks came from Rievaulx Abbey, in North Yorkshire. For 400 years, the monks worshipped at Dundrennan, but we know little about them. The church and cloister lie in secluded woods below the little village of Dundrennan. Together, they hold some of the best early Gothic architecture in Scotland. The church is the most impressive one to survive from the 13 Cistercian monasteries set up in Scotland. It is laid out on the usual Cistercian cross plan.The chapter house in the east range dates from the early 13th century. From what remains of it, it must’ve been truly beautiful. The entrance façade is a very pretty, and the six finely moulded piers inside once supported a handsome, stone-vaulted ceiling. Grave-slabs of four abbots are set into the floor, together with a slab of blue marble, once highly polished and mounted with a Flemish brass depicting a knight and lady.

The abbey‘s most famous visitor was Mary Queen of Scots. On 15 May 1568, she was welcomed at the gates following her escape from Lochleven Castle, near Kinross, and her defeat at Langside, beside Glasgow. Mary was making for England and the comparative safety, so she thought, of her cousin, Elizabeth I of England. On the following morning she boarded a boat bound for the Cumberland coast. She never returned to her native land. I was very impressed with the gravestones and with the remarkable archways. A signboard said that this abbey was similar to those that are still intact in Burgundy, France, so maybe we can see some of those while there in November.

The nice Historic Scotland steward here told us about the Orchardton Tower, so we headed there next. This is the only circular tower-house in Scotland. It was built in the mid 15th century for John Carnys (or Cairns). A door at ground level leads to a cellar with a vaulted roof. Access to the rest of the tower is via an external stair to the first floor. None of the upper floors remain, but there is a spiral staircase within the thickness of the wall that leads up to the parapet and is covered by a small gabled cap-house.

The tower also had a fortified yard which would have sheltered livestock and privded cellars, a bakehouse, and a hall. The tower itself was reserved for living quarters, and was accessed via a stair, possibly moveable, from the yard up to a first floor doorway. The tower is 33 feet in height and around 29 feet in diameter, tapering slightly to the top. A corbelled parapet forms the top of the walls, with a gabled caphouse covering the spiral stair, which is within the 6-9 foot thick walls. Above the ground floor was a main room with fireplace, deep windows with seats, and a carved basin for washing your hands. Above this would have been two further rooms, although the wooden floors have collapsed.

The Sir Robert Maxwell who held the Baronetcy in 1745 was on the losing side at the Battle of Culloden. He was wounded, captured and taken to Carlisle for execution. However, among his papers was his commission in the French Army. As a result he was treated as a prisoner of war and later sent to France. He eventually returned to Orchardton, and his story became the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott’s novel “Guy Mannering,” or “The Astrologer.”

The walls of the tower grew thinner as I climbed up and the spiral staircase grew narrower and tighter. In fact, it is believed that this tower has the narrowest, tightest spiral staircase in Scotland, only 4 feet 8 inches at the bottom and getting narrower with every step upwards. As we got in the car, a lovely "suede" cow watched our every move, her lovely skin looking just like a golden-brown suede fabric.

Next stop was the Southerness Lighthouse. This is one of the oldest lighthouses in Scotland. It lies on Southerness Point which extends into the Solway Firth, and is surrounded by the sea at high tide. This square structure was built as a marker in 1749 to ensure safe passage of ships entering the Nith Estuary. It was heightened in 1795 and a light was added for the first time around 1800, the light being improved in 1815 with the help of Robert Stevenson. And here we thought we had finally found a Scottish lighthouse NOT associated with the Stevensons. The light here was extinguised in the mid 1930s and is now disused.

Our last stop of this day of adventures was at Sweetheart Abbey. It was founded in 1273 by Lady Devorgilla of Galloway in memory of her husband, John Balliol.

In 1268, Lord John Balliol died. His grieving widow, Lady Dervorgilla of Galloway, had his heart embalmed and placed in an ivory casket. She carried it with her everywhere.She undertook many charitable acts in his memory. These included the founding of the Cistercian abbey of Dulce Cor (Latin for ‘Sweet Heart’) in 1273. When she too died in 1289, she was laid to rest in front of the abbey church’s high altar, clutching her husband’s heart to her bosom. At this point, the monks named their abbey in memory of her.Sweetheart Abbey is seen as a shrine to human and divine love. Its blood-red sandstone walls contrast with the lush green grass at their feet.

This was the last Cistercian house to be founded in Scotland. The church was planned in the shape of a cross. A bell tower once soared high above the central crossing. Although it adheres to Cistercian principles of austerity, the church has fine flourishes. These include the stone tracery in the presbytery windows, the ingenious circular window above the south transept, and the impressive west front.

Within seven years of Dervorgilla’s death, with the builders still working on the abbey church, the Wars of Independence with England erupted. Edward I of England himself resided at the abbey in 1300, whilst campaigning in Galloway. After 50 years of bloodshed, the monastery was in a bad state. The bishop of Galloway bemoaned Sweetheart’s ‘outstanding and notorious poverty’. To the rescue rode Archibald ‘the Grim’, Lord of Galloway and 3rd Earl of Black Douglas, who financed wholesale repairs and rebuilding. Thereafter, little is heard of Sweetheart until its demise following the Protestant Reformation in 1560.

A stone effigy of Lady Dervorgilla lies on display in the south transept. She is shown dressed in gown and mantle and cradling her husband’s embalmed heart to her bosom.

***pictures from top: Threave Castle; Cardoness Castle; MacLellan’s Castle; Dundrennan Abbey; Orchardton Tower.

Late start today as we were up so late last night.

Breakfast at Morrison’s then we headed out towards Lockerbie. We passed by the Torthorwald ruins, and cities called Watchhill and Shieldhill. I’ll bet there is history behind those names. We drove to Eskdalemuir to the Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. It is the first and largest of its kind in the West. This monastery was founded by Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche in 1967. There was a Garden for World Peace here and the Fountain of Blessings along with two ponds. This was such a colorful and peaceful place. I only wish the weather had been a bit cooler as it would have been more enjoyable to stay longer. The temple was very ornate and the prayer wheels were being turned automatically, but you could turn them faster yourself. Colorful prayer flags lined the rocky path to the temple and waved lightly in the breeze. There were several fountains and statues and a lovely peacock that made the loudest noise when he called out.

There were several points where people had stacked rocks in prayers for someone and a large clootie tree where people had tied ribbons in thoughts of sending healing to someone. I tied on an orange one for Katie. Supposedly when the natural elements release the ribbon from the tree, the person receives the healing.

As we were leaving, I saw the sign across the street that was labeled Fairy Hill. There was another clootie tree on top of it.

Then we went in search of Scott Clan sites. Scott is my maiden name, my father’s family name. I know that we began in Ireland then moved to the Scottish Border areas around Peebles, Jedburgh, Ettrick, Kelso, and Hawick.

We made it to Ettrick and hit the jackpot with our first stop. I was looking for Ettrick House and we came upon Ettrick Kirk, a church with a graveyard with at least a dozen OLD gravestones with the Scott name. Christina, Adam, Elizabeth, Thomas, James, Margaret, Helen, and Henry—all Scotts. And inside the church were documents signed by these people from the 1800s. AND one that mentioned a Charles Scott. The name Scott was all through the papers on display. A newspaper from the 1800s mentioning Wattie Scott—The Post. It was really a weird feeling to be there and realize that these people may be my ancestors.

The church itself was very simple in style. And, of course, because of the Scottish Reformation, there were no crosses or crucifixes. A very beautiful little church.

I hoped to find Aikwood Tower, a Scott castle, but when we finally found the road to it, it had evidently been bought by someone and the road was now private. How can you just take away something like that from the public? Evidently a Lord Steel has bought and restored the tower and his family now lives there. Oh well. Then it was off to Bowhill, supposedly a Scott family home and the most beautiful house in Scotland. But by the time we got there, it was too late to do the tour, so that will have to wait for another time. We did see Newark Castle on the estate lands. It entered the historic record in 1423 as the "New Werk", built by the Douglas family to replace an earlier stronghold. The castle was attacked by English armies twice in the 16th century and fell to the forces of Oliver Cromwell in 1650. Then we drove through Selkirk, a very pretty town, then went south to Hawick, a town I would love to have time to walk around in. In my research years ago, I found old maps that showed several Scotts living here. As we drove through, I saw a Peter Scott Knitwear store and a Frank Scott Court.

We crossed over so many wonderful stone bridges today, most over Ettrick Water or the River Teviot. I could imagine my ancestors farming here and raising sheep here, struggling to make ends meet before they left with hopes of a better life in America. We went back through Lockerbie and stopped at the Garden Of Remembrance at Dryfesdale to see the memorial to the 270 victims of the Lockerbie airplane bombing and crash. It was very sad. Two boys lost their mother, father, and sister in the tragedy. Pieces of the plane landed all around the city of Lockerbie and several people on the ground were killed, also.

We had dinner at the Solway Gate Table Table Pub & Restaurant again—now Ray has taken to calling it Duck Duck, because it reminds him of the Snow Goose in Inverness that he continually misnamed the Duck Pond.

Back to the room to catch up on blogging and try to stay cool.

***pictures from top: prayer wheels at the Buddhist monastery; clootie tree at the monastery; two of the members of the monastery; Samye Ling Temple; Ettrick Kirk.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Rain at Threave Castle

Favorites from Friday

Suede Cows!

Friday, July 3--4 Castles, 2 Abbeys, 1 Lighthouse...and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Extras from Ettrick Kirk

Thursday, July 2--Monastery, Scott Clan, & Lockerbie

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