CHAPTER X

MOTTE-CASTLES IN SCOTLAND

The Scottish historians of the 19th century have amply recognised the Anglo-Norman occupation of Scotland, which took place in the 11th and 12th centuries, ever since its extent and importance were demonstrated by Chalmers in his _Caledonia_. Occupation is not too strong a word to use, although it was an occupation about which history is strangely silent, and which seems to have provoked little resistance except in the Keltic parts of the country. But it meant the transformation of Scotland from a tribal Keltic kingdom into an organised feudal state, and in the accomplishment of this transformation the greater part of the best lands in Scotland passed into the hands of English refugees or Norman and Flemish adventurers.

The movement began in the days of Malcolm Canmore, when his English queen, the sainted Margaret, undoubtedly favoured the reception of English refugees of noble birth, some of whom were her own relations.[1000] Very soon, the English refugees were followed by Norman refugees, who had either fallen under the displeasure of the king of England, like the Montgomeries, or were the cadets of some Norman family, wishful to carve out fresh fortunes for themselves, like the Fitz Alans, the ancestors of the Stuarts. The immigration continued during the reign of the sons of Margaret, but seems to have reached its culminating point under David I. (1124-1153).

David, as Burton remarks, had lived for sixteen years as an affluent Anglo-Norman noble, before his accession to the Scottish crown, being Earl of Huntingdon in right of his wife, the daughter of Simon de Senlis, and granddaughter, through her mother, of Earl Waltheof. David's tastes and sympathies were Norman, but it was not taste alone which impelled him to build up in Scotland a monarchy of the Anglo-Norman feudal type. He had a distinct policy to accomplish; he wished to do for Scotland what Edward I. sought to do for the whole island, to unite its various nationalities under one government, and he saw that men of the Anglo-Norman type would be the best instruments of this policy.[1001] It mattered little to him from what nation he chose his followers, if they were men who accepted his ideas. Norman, English, Flemish, or Norse adventurers were all received at his court, and endowed with lands in Scotland, if they were men suitable for working the system which he knew to be the only one available for the accomplishment of his policy. And that system was the feudal system. He saw that feudalism meant a higher state of civilisation than the tribalism of Keltic Scotland, and that only by the complete organisation of feudalism could he carry out the unification of Scotland, and the subjugation of the wild Keltic tribes of the north and west.[1002]

The policy was successful, though it was not completely carried out until Alexander III. purchased the kingdom of the Isles from the King of Norway in 1266. The sons of David, Malcolm IV., and William the Lion were strong men who doughtily continued the subjugation of the Keltic parts of Scotland, and distributed the lands of the conquered among their Norman or Normanised followers. The struggle was a severe one; again and again did the North rebel against the yoke of the House of Malcolm. In Moray the Keltic inhabitants were actually driven out by Malcolm IV., and the country colonised by Normans or Flemings.[1003] The same Malcolm led no less than three expeditions against Galloway, where in spite of extensive Norse settlements on the coast, the mass of the inhabitants appear to have been Keltic.[1004]

We know very little about the details of this remarkable revolution, because Scotland had no voice in the 12th century, none of her chroniclers being earlier than the end of the 14th century. As regards the subject which concerns this book, the building of castles, there are only one or two passages which lift the veil. A contemporary English chronicler, Ailred of Rievaulx, in his panegyric of David I., says that David decorated Scotland with castles and cities.[1005] In like manner Benedict of Peterborough tells us that when William the Lion was captured by Henry II.'s forces in 1174, the men of Galloway took the opportunity to destroy all the castles which the king had built in their country, expelling his seneschals and guards, and killing all the English and French whom they could catch.[1006] Fordun casually mentions the building of two castles in Ross by William the Lion; and once he gives us an anecdote which is a chance revelation of what must have been going on everywhere. A certain English knight, Robert, son of Godwin, whose Norman name shows that he was one of the Normanised English, tarried with the king's leave on an estate which King Edgar had given him in Lothian, _and while he was seeking to build a castle there_, he was attacked by the men of Bishop Ranulf of Durham, who objected to a castle being built so near the English frontier.[1007]

But even if historians had been entirely silent about the building of castles in Scotland, we should have been certain that it must have happened, as an inevitable part of the Norman settlement. Robertson remarks that the Scots in the time of David I. were still a pastoral and in some respects a migratory people, their magnates not residing like great feudal nobles in their own castles, but moving about from place to place, and quartering themselves upon the dependent population. There is in fact no reason for supposing that the Keltic chiefs of Scotland built castles, any more than those of Wales or Ireland.[1008] But the feudal system must very soon have covered Scotland with castles.

The absence of any stone castles of Norman type has puzzled Scottish historians, whose ideas of castles were associated with buildings in stone.[1009] In 1898 Dr Christison published his valuable researches into the _Early Fortifications of Scotland_, in which for the first time an estimate was attempted of the distribution of Scottish _motes_,[1010] and their Norman origin almost, if not quite, suspected. His book was quickly followed by Mr George Neilson's noteworthy paper on the "Motes in Norman Scotland,"[1011] in which he showed that the wooden castle is the key which unlocks the historians' puzzle, and that the motes of Scotland are nothing but the evidence of the Norman feudal settlement.

Two important points urged in Mr Neilson's paper are the feudal and legal connection of these motes. He has given a list of mottes which are known to have been the site of the "chief messuages" of baronies in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has collected the names of a great number which were seats of justice, or places where "saisine" of a barony was taken, not because they were moot-hills, but because the administration of justice remained fixed in the ancient site of the baron's castle. "The doctrine of the chief messuage, which became of large importance in peerage law, made it at times of moment to have on distinct record the nomination of what the chief messuage was, often for the imperative function of taking _sasine_. In many instances the _caput baroniæ_, or the court or place for the ceremonial entry to possession, is the 'moit,' the 'mothill,' the 'auld castell,' the 'auld wark,' the 'castellsteid,' the 'auld castellsteid,' the 'courthill,' or in Latin _mons placiti_, _mons viridis_, or _mons castri_."[1012] In certain places where two mottes are to be found, he was able to prove that two baronies had once had their seats. Another point which Mr Neilson worked out is the relation of bordlands to mottes. Bordland or borland, though an English word, is not pre-Conquest; it refers to "that species of demesne which the lord reserves for the supply of his own table." It is constantly found in the near proximity of mottes.[1013]

The following is a list of thirty-eight Anglo-Norman or Normanised adventurers settled in Scotland, on whose lands mottes are to be found. The list must be regarded as a tentative one, for had all the names given by Chalmers been included, it would have been more than doubled. But the difficulties of obtaining topographical information were so great that it has been judged expedient to give only the names of those families who are known to have held lands, and in most cases to have had their principal residences, in places where mottes are or formerly were existing.[1014]

ANSTRUTHER.--William de Candela obtained the lands of Anstruther, in Fife, from David I. His descendants took the surname of Anstruther. The "Mothlaw" of Anstruther is mentioned in 1590.[1015] "At the W. end of the town there is a large mound, called the Chester Hill, in the middle of which is a fine well." (N. S. A., 1845.) The well is an absolute proof that this was the site of a castle.

AVENEL.--Walter de Avenel held Abercorn Castle and estate, in Linlithgow, in the middle of the 12th century. The castle stood on a green mound (N. S. A.) which is clearly marked in the O.M.

BALLIOL.--The De Bailleul family had their seat at Barnard Castle, in Durham, after the Conquest. They obtained lands in Galloway from David I., and had strongholds at Buittle, and Kenmure, in Kirkcudbright. At Buittle the site of the castle exists, a roughly triangular bailey with a motte at one corner;[1016] and at Kenmure the O.M. clearly shows a motte, as does the picture in Grose's _Antiquities of Scotland_. The terraces probably date from the time when the modern house on top was built.

BARCLAY.--The De Berkeleys sprang from the De Berkeleys of England, and settled in Scotland in the 12th century. Walter de Berkeley was Chamberlain of Scotland in 1165; William the Lion gave him the manor of Inverkeilor, in Forfarshire; there he built a castle, on Lunan Bay. "An artificial mound on the west side of the bay, called the Corbie's Knowe, bears evident marks of having been a castle long previous to the erection of Redcastle." (N. S. A.) The family also had lands in what is now Aberdeenshire, and at Towie, in the parish of Auchterless, they had a castle. "Close to the church of Auchterless there is a small artificial eminence of an oval shape, surrounded by a ditch, which is now in many places filled up. It still retains the name of the Moat Head, and was formerly the seat of the baronial court." (N. S. A.; N.; C.)

BRUCE.--The De Brus held lands in North Yorkshire at the time of the Domesday Survey. David I. gave them the barony of Annan, in Dumfriesshire. The original charter of this grant still exists in the British Museum, witnessed by a galaxy of Norman names.[1017] Their chief castles were at Annan and Lochmaben. At Annan, near the site of a later castle, there is still a motte about 50 feet high, with a vast ditch and some traces of a bailey (N.), called the Moat (N. S. A.). The "terras de Moit et Bailyis, intra le Northgate," are mentioned in 1582. South of the town of Lochmaben, on the N.W. side of the loch, is a fine motte called Castle Hill, with some remains of masonry, which is still pointed out as the original castle of the Bruces.[1018] (G.) The fine motte and bailey at Moffat must also have been one of their castles, as Moffat was one of their demesne lands. (Fig. 44.)

CATHCART.--Name territorial. Rainald de Cathcart witnesses a charter (in the Paisley Register) in 1179. Near the old castle of Cathcart, Lanark, is "an eminence called Court Knowe." (N. S. A.) As Mr Neilson has shown, these court knowes and court hills are generally disused mottes. The name Rainald is clearly Norman.

CHEYNE.--This family is first known in 1258, but had then been long settled in Scotland, and were hereditary sheriffs of Banffshire. Chalmers only mentions their manor of Inverugie, in Aberdeenshire. Behind the ruins of Inverugie Castle rises a round flat-topped hill, which was the Castle Hill or Mote Hill of former days. (N. S. A.)

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.

DOUGLAS.--Name territorial; progenitor was a Fleming, who received lands on the Douglas water, in Lanark, in the middle of the 12th century. In the park of Douglas, to the east of the modern castle, is a mound called Boncastle, but we are unable to state certainly that it is a motte. Lag Castle, in the parish of Dunscore, "has a moat or court hill a little to the east." (N. S. A.: shown in Grose's picture.) It must have been originally Douglas land, as in 1408 it was held by an armour-bearer of Douglas.

DURAND.--Clearly a Norman name, corrupted into Durham. The family were seated at Kirkpatrick Durham in the 13th century. There is or was a motte at Kirkpatrick.[1021]

DURWARD.--This family was descended from Alan de Lundin, who was dur-ward or door-keeper to the king about 1233. They possessed a wide domain in Aberdeenshire, and had a castle at Lumphanan, where Edward I. stayed in 1296. There is a round motte in the Peel Bog at Lumphanan, surrounded by a moat, which was fed by a sluice from the neighbouring burn. There were ruins in masonry on the top some hundred years ago. The writer of the N. S. A. account of this place, with remarkable shrewdness, conjectures that a wooden castle on this mound was the ancient residence of the Durwards, superseded in the 15th century by a building of stone, and that it has nothing to do with Macbeth, whose burial-place is said to be a cairn in the neighbourhood.[1022]

FITZ ALAN.--This is the well-known ancestor of the House of Stuart, Walter, a cadet of a great Norman family in Shropshire, who is said to have obtained lands in Scotland in Malcolm Canmore's time. Renfrew was one of his seats, and Inverwick, in Haddington, another. Renfrew Castle is entirely destroyed, but the description of the site, on a small hill, ditched round, called Castle Hill, strongly suggests a motte. The keep of Inverwick stands on a natural motte of rock.[1023] Dunoon was one of their castles, near to which "stood the Tom-a-mhoid, or Hill of the court of justice" (G.), possibly an ancient motte.[1024] Dunoon Castle, however, itself stands on a motte, partly artificial and partly carved out of a headland. (N.)

FLEMING.--There were many Flemings among the followers of David I., and eventually the name stuck to their descendants as a surname. Baldwin the Fleming obtained lands at Biggar, in Lanarkshire. There is a motte at the west end of the town of Biggar, 36 feet high. Biggar was the head of a barony. (N. S. A. and N.) Colban the Fleming settled at Colbantown, now Covington, Lanarkshire, where there is a motte (N.). Robert the Fleming has left a well-preserved oblong motte at Roberton, in Lanark, which was a barony, and where the _moit_ was spoken of in 1608. (N.)

GRAHAM.--Came from England under David I., and received lands in Lothian. A Graham was lord of Tarbolton, in Ayrshire, in 1335, so it is possible that the motte at that place, on which stood formerly the chief messuage of the barony of Tarbolton, was one of their castles (N. S. A.), but it may have been older.

HAMILTON.--It is not certain that the Hamiltons came to Scotland before 1272. King Robert I. gave them the barony of Cadzow, Lanark, which had originally been a royal seat. In Hamilton Park there is a mote hill, which was the site of the chief messuage of this barony (N.). It was formerly surrounded by the town of Hamilton. (N. S. A.) It is of course possible that this motte may be much older than the Hamiltons, as the site of an originally royal castle.

HAY.--First appears in the 12th century, as butler to Malcolm IV. The family first settled in Lothian, where they had lands at Lochorworth. The Borthwick family, who got this estate by marriage, obtained a license from James I. about 1430 to build a castle "on the mote of Locherwart," and to this castle they gave their own name. (N. S. A.) No doubt it was the original motte of the Hays. King William gave the Hays the manor of Errol, in Perthshire, which was made into a barony. Here is or was the mote of Errol, "a round artificial mound about 20 feet high, and 30 feet in diameter at the top; the platform at the top surrounded with a low turf wall, and the whole enclosed with a turf wall at the base, in the form of an equilateral triangle." (N. S. A.; evidently a triangular bailey.) It is called the Law Knoll, and is spoken of as a _fortalicium_ in 1546. (N.)

LENNOX.--The earls of Lennox are descended from Arkel, an Englishman, who received from Malcolm Canmore lands in Dumbartonshire. At Catter, near the Earl's castle, is a large artificial mound.[1025]

LOCKHART.--Stevenston, in Ayrshire, takes its name from Stephen Loccard, and Symington, in Lanark, from his son (?), Simon Loccard. At Stevenson there was formerly a castle, and there still (1845) is a Castle Hill. Stevenston was given by Richard Morville to Stephen Loccard about 1170. (N. S. A.) At Symington there was formerly a round mound, called Law Hill, at the foot of the village, but it has been levelled. (N. S. A.)

LOGAN.--A Robert Logan witnesses a charter of William the Lion, and appears later as Dominus Robertus de Logan. The name Robert shows his Norman origin. At Drumore, near Logan (parish of Kirkmaiden, Wigton), there was a castle, and there is still a court hill or mote.[1026] Another mote, at Myroch, in the same parish, is mentioned by Mr Neilson as the site of the chief messuage of the barony of Logan.

LOVEL.--Settled at Hawick, Roxburghshire. The mote of Hawick, from the picture in Scott's _Border Antiquities_, seems to be a particularly fine one. Hawick was a barony, and Le Moit is mentioned in 1511. (N.)

LYLE, or LISLE.--The castle of this Norman family was at Duchal, Renfrewshire. The plan is clearly that of a motte and bailey, but the motte is of natural rock.[1027]

MALE, now MELVILLE.--Settled in Haddingtonshire under David I., and called their seat Melville. Melville Castle is modern. They afterwards obtained by marriage lands on the Bervie River, in the Mearns. Dr Christison's map shows a motte near the mouth of the Bervie.

MAXWELL.--Maccus, son of Unwin[1028] (evidently of Scandinavian origin), received lands on the Tweed from David I., and called his seat Maccusville, corrupted into Maxwell. There is a motte at Maxwell, near Kelso. (N.) Maxton, in Roxburghshire, takes its name from him, and there is a motte called Ringley Hall, on the Tweed, in this parish. (C. and N. S. A.)

MONTALT, or MOWAT.--Robert de Montalto (Mold, in Flintshire) witnesses a charter of David I. The family settled in Cromarty. Le Mote at Cromarty is mentioned in 1470. (N.)

MONTGOMERY.--This family is undoubtedly descended from some one of the sons of the great Earl Roger of Shrewsbury, settled in Scotland after the ruin of his family in England. Robert de Montgomerie received the manor of Eaglesham, Renfrew, from Fitz Alan, the High Steward of Scotland. The principal messuage of this manor was at Polnoon, 1/2 mile S.E. of Eaglesham. Here Sir John Montgomerie built the castle of Polnoon about 1388. (N. S. A.) The O.M. seems to show that the ruins of this castle stand on a motte, probably the original castle of Montgomerie.

MORVILLE.--Hugh de Morville was a Northamptonshire baron, the life-long friend of David I.[1029] He founded one of the most powerful families in the south 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.

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.[1030] 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.)

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.[1031]

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. (N.)

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.[1032] (Fig. 44.)

VALOIGNES.--Philip de Valoignes and his son William were each successively chamberlains of Scotland.[1033] 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 1/4 mile from the present house of Torrance. (N. S. A.)

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 Our ancestors did raise it to a hill; A stately castle also on it stood.

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.[1034] 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.

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 name "Boreland of Kingston," which Pont places in 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.[1035]

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 still bearing the name of Castle Hill, there stood in former times beyond all doubt a royal castle." (N. S. A.) Mr Neilson says, "It certainly bears out its reputation as an artificial mound."

ROSEMARKIE, Cromarty.--Was made a royal burgh by Alexander II., so the castle must have been originally royal. "Immediately above the town is a mound of nearly circular form, and level on the top, which seems to be artificial, and has always been called the Court Hill." (N. S. A.)

Even if we had no other evidence that motte-castles were of Norman construction, this list would be very significant. But taken in connection with the evidence for the Norman origin of the English, Welsh, and Irish mottes, it supplies ample proof that in Scotland, as elsewhere, the Norman and feudal settlement had its material guarantees in the castles which were planted all over the land, and that these castles were the simple structures of earth and wood, whose earthen remains have been the cause of so much mystification.

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