The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.Armitage, Ella Sophia
History
The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.
Armitage, Ella Sophia
Architecture, Norman; Castles -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500; Normans -- Great Britain
COLVILLE.--Appears in Scotland in the reign of Malcolm IV., holding
the manors of Heton and Oxnam, in Roxburgh. About 1/4 mile from Oxnam
(which was a barony) is a moated mound called Galla Knowe. (O.M., C.,
and N.) Hailes identified the castle in Teviotdale, captured and burnt
by Balliol in 1333, with that of Oxnam.[1019] Le Mote de Oxnam is
mentioned in 1424 (N.).
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--SCOTTISH MOTTE-CASTLES. Annan. Moffat. Duffus.
Liddesdale.]
CUMYN, or COMYN.--The first of this family came to Scotland as the
chancellor of David I.[1020] First seated at Linton Roderick, in
Roxburghshire, where there is a rising ground, surrounded formerly
by a foss, the site of the original castle; (G.) a description
which seems to suggest a motte. William the Lion gave the Cumyns
Kirkintilloch in Dumbarton, and we afterwards find them at Dalswinton
in Dumfriesshire, and Troqueer in Kirkcudbright. At Kirkintilloch the
O.M. shows a square mount concentrically placed in a square enceinte.
The enclosure was apparently one of the forts on the wall of Agricola,
but the writer on Kirkintilloch in the N. S. A. suspected that it had
been transformed into a castle by the Cumyns. At Dalswinton the O.M.
shows a motte, and calls it the "site of Cumyn's Castle." At Troqueer,
"directly opposite the spot on the other side the river where Cumyn's
Castle formerly stood is a mote of circular form and considerable
height." (N. S. A.) The Cumyn who held Kirkintilloch in 1201, was made
Earl of Buchan, and held the vast district of Badenoch, or the great
valley of the Spey. The N. S. A. gives many descriptions of remains
in this region which are suggestive of motte-castles; we can only
name the most striking: Ruthven, "a castle reared by the Comyns on a
green conical mound on the S. bank of the Spey, thought to be partly
artificial," now occupied by ruined barracks; Dunmullie, in the parish
of Duthill, where "there can be traced vestiges of a motte surrounded
by a ditch, on which, according to tradition, stood the castle of the
early lords"; Crimond, where Cumyn had a castle, and where there is
a small round hill called Castle Hill; and Ellon, where the Earl of
Buchan had his head court, on a small hill which has now disappeared,
but which was anciently known as the moot-hill of Ellon. Saisin of the
earldom was given on this hill in 1476. (N. S. A.)
CUNNINGHAM.--Warnebald, who came from the north of England, was a
follower of the Norman, Hugh de Morville, who gave him the lands of
Cunningham, in Ayrshire, from which the family name was taken. In the
parish of Kilmaurs, which is in the district of Cunningham, there is a
"mote," which may have been the castle of Warnebald; at any rate the
original manor place of Cunningham was in this parish. It is of course
possible that this motte may have been originally a De Morville castle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account