MORVILLE-OLIPHANT 317 of Scotland, though after three generations their lands passed to heiresses, and their chief seat is not even known by name. But Mr Neilson states that Darnhall, in Peebles, was the head of their "Black Barony," and that there is a motte there. As Hugh de Morville gave the church of Borgue to Dryburgh Abbey about 1150, it is probable that the motte at Boreland of Borgue was one of his castles. The barony of Beith, in Ayr, given by Richard de Morville to the Abbey of Kilwinning, has also a motte, which may be reckoned to be the site of a De Morville castle. Largs, in Ayr, belonged to the De Morvilles, and has a Castle Hill near the village, which appears to be a motte. (G.) MOWBRAY. This well-known Norman family also sent a branch to Scotland. Amongst other places, about which we have no details, they held Eckford, in Roxburghshire. In this parish, near the ancient mansion, is an artificial mount called Haughhead Kipp. (N. S. A.) This seems a possible motte, but its features are not described. 1 MURRAY.-Freskin the Fleming came to Scotland under David I., and received from that king lands in Moray. He built himself a castle at Duffus, in Elgin, which is on the motte-and-bailey plan. The stone keep now on the motte appears to be of the 14th century. Freskin's posterity took the name of De Moravia, or Moray. (Fig. 44.) OLIPHANT, or OLIFARD.-Cambuslang, in Lanark, belonged to Walter Olifard, Justiciary of Lothian in the time of Alexander II. About a mile E. of the church is a circular mound 20 feet high. It was here that the Oliphants' castle of Drumsagard formerly stood. (N. S. A.) Drumsagard was a barony. (N.) 1 MacGibbon and Ross, i., 279. DE QUINCY.-Obtained from William the Lion the manors of Travernant, in East Lothian, and Leuchars, in Fife. Near the village of Leuchars is a motte with some slight remains of a stone keep, a deep well in the centre, and an entrenched bailey, known as the site of the castle of Leuchars.1 Ross.--Godfrey de Ros, a vassal of Richard de Morville, held of him the lands of Stewarton, in Ayr. The caput of the lordship was Castletown, where Le Mote is spoken of in 1451 (N. and C.). The De Ros were also the first lords of the barony of Sanquhar. A little lower down the river Nith than the later castle of Sanquhar is a mote called Ryehill, and a place anciently manorial. (N.) SOMERVILLE. - William de Somerville was a Norman to whom David I. gave the manor of Carnwath, in Lanarkshire. There is a very perfect entrenched motte at Carnwath (N. S. A. and O.M.), and Le Moit de Carnwath is mentioned in 1599. (Ν.) son DE SOULIS. Followed David I. from Northamptonshire into Scotland, and received Liddesdale, in Roxburghshire, from him. The motte and bailey of his original castle still remain, very near the more celebrated but much later Hermitage Castle.2 (Fig. 44.) VALOIGNES. Philip de Valoignes and his William were each successively chamberlains of Scotland. One of their estates was Easter Kilbride, in Lanarkshire, where they had a castle. In this parish is an artificial mount of earth, with an oval area on top, about mile from the present house of Torrance. (N. S. A.) 1 Proceedings of Soc. Ant. Scotland, xxxi., and N. S. A. 2 See Armstrong's History of Liddesdale, cited by MacGibbon and Ross, i., 523. 3 Round, The Ancestor, No. 11, 130. VAUX, or DE VALLIBUS. - Settled in Scotland under William the Lion. Held the manors of Dirleton and Golyn, in East Lothian. Dirleton has been transformed into an Edwardian castle, but from the pictures it appears to stand on a natural motte of rock. But about 3 miles from Dirleton the O.M. shows a large motte called Castle Hill, which may possibly be the original castle of the De Vaux. WALLACE, or WALLENSIS. - Richard Walensis was the first of this family, and acquired lands in Ayrshire in David I.'s time. He named his seat Riccardton, after himself, and the remains of his motte are still there, a small oval motte called Castle Hill, on which the church of Riccarton now stands, but which is recognised as having been a "mote hill." (G.) To this list must be added a number of royal castles known to have been built in the 12th century, which, as they were built on mottes, must in the first instance have been wooden castles. BANFF. It seems clear that Banff Castle had a motte, because the doggerel rhymes of Arthur Johnstone in 1642 say: A place was near which was a field until The Gazetteer says: "The citadel occupied a mount, originally at the end though now near the middle of the town." The site is still called Castle Hill. (N. S. A.) CRAIL, Fife. The O.M. does not show a motte here. The N. S. A. says "there was a royal residence here, upon an eminence overlooking the harbour." That this "eminence" was a motte seems clear from the Register of the Great Seal, quoted by Mr Neilson, which speaks of "Le Moitt olim castrum" in 1573. CUPAR. There seem to be two mottes here, both raised on a natural "esker"; the one formerly called the Castle Hill is now called the School Hill, the school having been built upon it. The other and higher hill is called the Moot Hill, and is said to be the place where the earls of Fife used to dispense justice. (N. S. A.) Mr Neilson states that both are mentioned in the Registrum. DUMFRIES. -Here there were two mottes, one being now the site of a church, the other, called Castle Dykes, a short distance S. of the town, on the opposite side of the river. Both no doubt were royal castles, and Mr Neilson has suggested that as an old castlestead is spoken of in a charter of William the Lion, it implies that a new castle had recently been built, possibly after the great destruction of the royal castles in Galloway in 1174.1 The Castle Dykes appears to be the later castle, as it is spoken of in the 16th century. (N.) DUNSKEATH, Cromarty. - Built by William the Lion in 1179. The castle is built on a small moat overhanging the sea. (G.) ELGIN.-Built by William the Lion on a small green hill called Lady Hill, with conical and precipitous sides. (N. S. A. and G.) FORFAR.-"The castle stood on a round hill to the N. of the town, and must have been surrounded by water." (N. S. A.) It was destroyed in 1307. It is called Gallow Hill in the O.M., and is now occupied by gasworks. Benedict of Peterborough, i., 67. See Mr Neilson's papers in the Dumfries Standard, June 28, 1899. Mr Neilson remarks: "It may well be that the original castle of Dumfries was one of Malcolm IV.'s forts, and that the mote of Troqueer, at the other side of a ford of the river, was the first little strength of the series by which the Norman grip of the province was sought to be maintained." FORRES-LANARK 321 FORRES.-The plan in Chalmers' Caledonia clearly shows a motte, to which the town appears to have formed a bailey. INVERNESS.-Built by David I. when he annexed Moray. The site is now occupied by a gaol, but the O.M. shows it to have been a motte, which is clearly depicted in old engravings. INNERMESSAN.-As the lands here appear to have been royal property as late as the time of David II., the large round motte here may have been an early royal castle, a conjecture which finds some confirmation in the "Boreland of Kingston," which Pont places in name the same parish. (N. S. A.) JEDBURGH.-Probably built by David I. The site, which is still called Castle Hill, has been levelled and completely obliterated by the building of a gaol. Yet an old plan of the town in 1762, in the possession of the late Mr Laidlaw of Jedburgh, shows the outline of the castle to have been exactly that of a motte and bailey, though, as no hachures are given, it is not absolutely convincing. KINCLEVEN, Perth. - The O.M. shows no earthworks connected with the present castle, but on the opposite side of the river it places a motte called Castle Hill, which may very likely be the site of the original castle. KIRKCUDBRIGHT. - Dr Christison marks a motte here, to the W. of the town. The place is called Castle Dykes. Mr Coles says it has an oblong central mound and a much larger entrenched area.1 LANARK.-Ascribed traditionally to David I. "On a small artificially shaped hill between the town and the river, at the foot of the street called Castle Gate, and 1 "Mottes, Forts, and Doons of Kirkcudbright," Soc. Ant. Scot., xxv., 1890. |