Buittle Castle

Ruins of Buittle Castle

Buittle Castle, also known historically as Botle or Botel Castle, is a ruined castle in Kirkcudbrightshire in Galloway, south-west Scotland. It is located in the valley of the River Urr, 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) west of Dalbeattie. The castle is within the parish of Buittle, in the traditional county of Kirkcudbrightshire and is a scheduled ancient monument.[1][2]

A motte and bailey castle was built by Roland, Lord of Galloway, in the 12th century, half a mile upstream from the later Norman castle. The castle passed by marriage to John de Balliol through the heiress Dervorguilla of Galloway, who built the Norman castle. Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, captured the castle in 1286. The castle was in English hands in 1296. King Robert the Bruce captured the castle in 1313 and it was given to Sir James Douglas, Lord of Douglas. The castle came into Edward Balliol's hands in 1332, before being given to Archibald the Grim, 3rd Earl of Douglas, in 1372. The castle remained in the hands of the Douglasses until 1456, when the castle reverted to the Crown and is now in the hands of Balliol College, University of Oxford[3]. The castle was later in the hands of the Maxwells and later the Gordons. The castle was slighted in 1595, and large portions of it, most notably the motte, became totally ruinous.

Buittle Tower

Parts of the bailey including Old Place of Buittle commonly and locally known as Buittle Tower, a tower keep, with 16th and 17th century additions still stand. By about 1790 the tower house was a roofless ruin but was re-roofed in the mid-nineteenth century as accommodation for farm workers on the Munches House estate of which it had become part.

The current buildings comprise a courtyard on the site of the Inner Bailey. This courtyard comprises a recently refurnished chapel, a printing office and the shop of the Buittle Craft Guild, and the L-plan Tower house with its lower annex wing. It is currently home to the Laird of Buittle, who is the 24th great grandson of Lady Devorguilla and John de Balliol through descent through John Balliol, King of Scots sister Cecilia de Balliol. The chapel is also home to an Orthodox Old Calendar parish, where two priests undertake regular services according to the ancient Use of Sarum.[4]

Citations

  1. ↑ "Buittle Castle - SM1115". Historic Environment Scotland. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  2. ↑ "Buittle Castle". CANMORE. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
  3. ↑ Greenwood, Xavier (2018-05-29). "Oxford and Cambridge university colleges own property worth £3.5bn". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  4. ↑ "Kalendar". botelabbey.org. July 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-20.

Coordinates: 54°56′07″N 3°50′40″W / 54.9352°N 3.8445°W / 54.9352; -3.8445


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.