It is difficult to believe now, but the jumble of stones surmounted by an arch we know today, has seen many of Scotland’s important historical characters pass before it. Viking invaders, Fergus and his dynasty of the Lords of Galloway, Robert the Bruce and of course, that legendary Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, are all said to have played a part in the history of this once impregnable fortress. It has witnessed some of Scotland’s major historical events and is the subject of a number of stories, some true, some maybe not so.
Climbing up the coastal path from Rigg Bay, the unmistakable shape of the arch, the only remaining intact feature of Cruggleton Castle, soon comes into view. All around are views across Wigtown Bay, to Kirkcudbrightshire and beyond. The strategic value this place once held is easy to see.
The history
The first structure to occupy this spot was a promontory fort with a timber roundhouse, built around the 1st century AD, the surrounding ditch is still visible. The next period of occupation was during the 8th century, when a timber hall was constructed, surrounded by a wooden palisade, an arrangement which seems to have survived into the mid-12th century, probably being rebuilt wholly or partially as the need arose. This means the fort of Cruggleton would have been in use during the time of the Gallghàidhel supremacy and during the rise of the Lords of Galloway.
Galloway was absorbed into the kingdom of Northumbria early in the 8th century, King Ceolwulf creating the Bishopric of Whithorn in 729AD. Alpin, King of the Scots of Dalriada invaded Galloway in 740AD, but was beaten back by a native chief called Innrechtach and killed at Glenn App, named after him 1. Northumbria declined over the next half century in a series of internecine squabbles and assassinations between rival claimants to the throne, leaving it vulnerable to the coming of the Vikings.
The first references to the Gallghàidhel (the foreigner Gaels), Hiberno-Norse settlers appeared during the 9th century, who seem to have formed an alliance of some sort with the local population, meaning the area escaped the pillaging unleashed in other places. The monastery at Whithorn survived un-plundered and the Irish chronicler MacFirbis wrote they had renounced their baptism and taken the pagan customs of the Norsemen2.
Olaf the White is named as a chief in Galloway. In 844 he seized the throne of Dublin and in 872, captured Alt Clut, the capital of Strathclyde at Dumbarton. Sigard the Stout was the Lord of Galloway in 1008 and Suibhne mac Cinaeda ri Gallgaidhel was the first named King of Galloway3. All we know of him is he died in 1034, being succeeded by his son Diarmid, who died in battle in 1072.
Malcolm Canmore avenged his father Duncan’s death by slaying Macbeth in 1057, becoming king of the Scots. He prudently married Ingibiorg the Pictish widow of Earl Thorfinn, bringing the Norse districts of Scotland, including Galloway under his control.
Galloway briefly fell back under Norwegian control during the campaigns of Magnus III around the Irish Sea (he is said to have built Castle Feather at Burrowhead). In 1098 he took control of the Western Isles and the Isle of Man, but was killed in Ulster in 1103.
The background and emergence in the early 1100s of the celebrated ‘Fergus de Galweia’ are rather obscure. One tradition states he was a boyhood friend of David I, being brought up in the court of Henry I of England, where he also met his future wife, Elizabeth Fitzroy, the illegitimate daughter of Henry I4. He was also said to be a close relative of Somerled, Lord of the Isles and of Man and was less likely to be of Anglo-Norman descent than Norse-Celtic.
There is even uncertainty about the time when he took up the Lordship. Some historians conject he was appointed as a governor of the region by David I, following the Scottish defeat at the Battle of the Standard in 1138, in which Galloway chiefs Ulgric and Duvenald were killed5. Others speculate his rule began in the early 1120s and as he is credited with re-establishing the Bishopric of Whithorn and the founding of Whithorn Priory in 1128, he must have held some power by the earlier date. He also established a dynasty that saw his descendants hold the Lordship of Galloway into the mid thirteenth century.
Cruggleton, still a wooden construction, was by this time certainly at least one of the strongholds of the Lords of Galloway, although it is possible that his original seat of power was the fortified island of Loch Fergus, near Kirkcudbright6.
Another clue to Fergus’s background, is that he allied himself to the Norse Lords of the Isles. Upon the death of David I in 1153, they attempted to rise against his successor Malcolm IV, but were beaten back at the supposed battle at Glenquicken7. This version sees an army of Irish-Scots beating back the Norsemen, but another version of the battle exists in which the English defeat the Scots and kill the Bishop of Whithorn, who is buried at Cairnholy8.
During 1160 Malcolm IV launched three military campaigns into Galloway and by the end of the year, Fergus submitted to the overlordship of the King of the Scots and retired, taking holy orders and dying at Holyrood just a few months later in 1161.
Fergus was succeeded by his two rival sons, Uchtred who ruled the eastern part of Galloway (now the Stewartry) and Gilbert who ruled the western section (now Wigtownshire) and it is likely that Cruggleton was his base.
Both brothers joined King William the Lion’s invasion of England in 1174, in an attempt to regain Cumbria. William was captured at the siege of Alnwick Castle, which they took advantage of by returning to Galloway and expelling the bailiffs set over them by the Scottish king, destroying all of their defences and killing all of the English and French they could seize9. It seems that Gilbert mostly worked alone in this and was opposed by Uchtred. Possibly motivated by the grievance he had been denied his full inheritance, Gilbert accused his brother of treachery and sent his son Malcolm to kill him. His stronghold was besieged and in one version of the story it seems Uchtred escaped, as he was captured in a cave near Portpatrick10. He was brutally tortured by being blinded, castrated and having his tongue cut out, before he was slain. Many assume that Uchtred’s stronghold was at Loch Fergus, but there is a strong case for Burned Island on Loch Ken too11.
Gilbert sent a plea to King Henry II, offering a payment of 2000 marks and yearly tribute of 500 cows and 500 swine if the king would, “remove Galloway from the servitude of the king of Scotland12.” After an investigation uncovering Gilbert’s fratricide, his request was refused, he was fined 1000 marks and was forced to hand his son and heir Donnchad (Duncan) over to Henry as a hostage, to ensure his good behaviour.
Gilbert’s resistance to Anglo-Norman culture is lampooned in the following passage from Guilliaume le Clerc’s peom ‘Roman de Fergus’, which includes a description of Cruggleton Castle.
On the road out of Galloway, in a castle down a valley, lived a peasant… very close to the Irish Sea. He had his dwelling splendidly situated on a great rock, encircled by clay and wattle walls. The hill was topped by a tower that was not made of granite or limestone: its wall was built high of earth, with ramparts and battlements. The peasant was very well off to have such a handsome home by the sea. If he looked out he could see for thirty leagues all around. Nobody inside could feel threatened by any maker of siege equipment or from any assault, the rock being high and massive. The peasant governed and held in his possession the whole of the county which had been his for a very long time, and nobody could take it from him. 13
Tensions between Gilbert and King William the Lion lasted for the remainder of his life. William courted the loyalty of Uchtred’s son Lochlann (Roland) and when Gilbert died in 1185, still at war with William and his own son still a hostage, William installed Roland as his successor. Duncan was made Mormaer (Earl) of Carrick, on condition of good relations with his cousin and based at Turnberry Castle, establishing the dynasty that would eventually sire Robert the Bruce.
Roland’s eldest son Alan succeeded the title in 1200 and it was probably during his time that the next phase of building at Cruggleton took place. The rocky outcrop was raised and levelled, using clay and shale to flatten the area and a timber tower erected. The timber hall was kept and extended.
Alan’s death in 1234 sparked a succession crisis. His only legitimate son Thomas was dead, as was his brother, also named Thomas. Alan had an illegitimate son, confusingly called Thomas too, who he seems to have favoured to inherit the Lordship, Celtic customs didn’t limit succession to solely legitimate heirs. The Scottish King Alexander II had other ideas, the last thing he wanted was a united Galloway, possibly reigniting interest in the region among the Lords of the Isles.
Alexander divided the region among Alan’s three legitimate daughters, the eastern section of Galloway was handed to Dervogilla (Derbhorgail), married to John Balliol, Lord of Barnard Castle. His eldest daughter Helena (Elena) and her husband Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, inherited Cruggleton Castle, along with western Galloway. Christina, married to William de Forz, Earl of Albermarle also inherited lands.
Alexander was prepared to go to great ends to avoid a united Galloway and to extinguish Gaelic influence in the region. All the better that Alan’s daughters were all married to noblemen of fine Anglo-Norman stock. Matthew Paris describes described the Gallovidian forces with a typical distaste by which the Anglo-Normans viewed Celtic culture.
They made an unheard of covenant, inventing a kind of soucery, in accord with certain abominable customs of their ancient forefathers. For all those barbarians and their leaders… shed blood from the pre-cordial vein into a large vessel… and they stirred and mixed the blood after it was drawn; and afterwards they offered it to one another in turn and drank it as a sign that they were henceforward bound in an indissoluble, and as it were consanguinal covenant, united in good fortune and ill, even to sacrifice their lives.
The area erupted into rebellion against feudal Norman rule. Thomas enjoying considerable local support and drawing troops from his lands in Ireland, pressed for his inheritance. A body called the ‘Community of Galloway’ composed of local nobility and the clergy, appealed to Alexander to take Galloway into his direct rule, rather than divide it14, but the husbands of the heiresses were powerful men, especially Roger de Quincy who was a prominent figure in Alexander’s service. Instead the Scottish king refused their appeals and moved to crush Thomas’s uprising. Alexander came close to defeat as he became entangled in some of Galloway’s wilder regions, until Farquhar MacTaggart, the Earl of Ross came to his aid by sea.
Thomas fled to Ireland and Alexander left Walter Comyn, Earl of Mentieth to pacify the country, which was achieved by brutality and looting. He returned the following year, but was captured and imprisoned by Alexander II at Barnard Castle, where he remained conveniently out of the way until he was eventually released in 1296, 61 years later, by Edward I in order to undermine the claim of John Balliol to the Scottish throne.
Further rebellions flared in 1246 and 1247, during which de Quincy found himself ‘trapped in his castle’. Unfortunately, which castle isn’t mentioned, but as de Quincy is believed to have made Cruggleton his main residence15, it could well be from here he was forced to escape and seek the help of Alexander to quell the uprising.
De Quincy died in 1264 and his estates were inherited by his three daughters, it was his middle daughter, Elizabeth who inherited his lands in Galloway. Elizabeth was married to Alexander Comyn, 2nd Earl of Buchan16, who was succeed upon his death in 1289 by his son John (of the Black Comyns and not to be confused with John of the Red Comyns in Badenoch, who was later killed by Robert the Bruce). It was very probably the Comyns who carried out the next phase of development at Cruggleton, building the first stone castle on the site. John Comyn received a licence from Edward circa 1290 to dig lead at the Calf of Man to cover eight towers. A series of towers were connected by a curtain wall and a gatehouse with portcullis and drawbridge over a pit in front of the entrance.
This is where the history of the castle becomes a little confusing. According to another story, Cruggleton had been owned by the Carrolls/MacCairills from Ireland, later changing their name to Kerlie, since ancient times and its possession by the Lords of Galloway was a mistaken presumption. In his book ’History of the Lands and Their Owners In Galloway, Volume II (1877)’, PH M’Kerlie states that the castle was built by the Norse Sea Kings and the ownership passed from Earl Malcolm to the MacCairills during the 12th century. The castle was captured from William Kerlie by the evil William de Soulis by deceit in 1282, acting as a secret agent of Edward I. After visiting under pretence of friendship and finding it weakly defended, he installed enough of his followers to take it easily and it was temporarily presented to John Comyn. In 1296, Cruggleton Castle along with castles at Ayr, Wigtown and Bottel were committed to the keeping of Henry de Percy17.
King Alexander III died unexpectedly in 1286, setting into motion a succession crisis known as the ‘Great Cause’ that would eventually lead to the Wars of Scottish independence. Much has been written elsewhere on this subject, by those far more knowledgeable than I, so I will keep to matters relevant to Cruggleton Castle.
The campaigns of William Wallace began with the killing of William de Heselrig, the English High Sheriff of Lanark, in May 1297. After a number of failed attempts to retake Cruggleton, William Kerlie was an early adherent to Wallace’s cause, staying with him right through to his betrayal and capture near Glasgow in 1305 and was killed in his sleep while Wallace was captured.
It seems that at some time between the surrender of the nobles at Irvine in July 1297 and Wallace’s invasion of Northern England in November, he made an excursion into Galloway to return Cruggleton Castle to the Kerlies. Depending on how you view Blind Harry’s account (writing in the mid-15th century, his poem ‘The Wallace’ is viewed as less than accurate), he first of all took the motte and bailey castle at Minnigaff. When Edward’s man John of Hoddleston at Wigtown Castle heard that Wallace was approaching, to fled ‘back to his own country’ leaving Wallace to take the castle and progress to Cruggleton.
Finding the castle too strong to take by conventional methods, with great courage Wallace and his staunchest companions Kerlie and Steven swam out to the base of the rock and scaled the cliffs. They seized the sentry and threw him to his death, opened the gates, lowered the drawbridge and upon a blast of his horn, Wallace summoned the men he had hidden nearby, who stormed forth and retook the castle for his friend18.
William de Soulis meanwhile was ‘received into the peace of King Edward I of England’ in 1304, while Robert the Bruce was crowned as King of Scotland in 1306. Bruce is said to have put Cruggleton beyond use in 1308, but it seems to have been quickly reoccupied and repaired as Bruce captured it again from Henry de Percy in 1313. De Soulis was made a knight by Edward II in 1312, but rapidly changed sides in favour of the Scots following the victory at Bannockburn in 1314. By 1318 he was the Butler of Scotland and appeared on the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 and seems to have been once again in possession of Cruggleton at this time.
Carta prioris Candide case de pecia terre de Cregiltoun. Candide case, of Crougiltoun, quhilke perteinit to lord Soullis”
Register of the Great Seal of Scotland”. Vol.I. AD1306-1424
However, soon after he was uncovered as part of a conspiracy against Bruce along with the Lord of Brechin and incarcerated in Dumbarton Castle, where he died under mysterious circumstances in 1321.
Robert the Bruce then granted Cruggleton to the monks at Whithorn Priory, but during the reign of David II (1329-1371) it was granted to Gilbert Kennedy, then back to the Priors and Cannons of Whithorn again in 1424. In 1369, Archibald ‘The Grim’ Douglas was appointed Lord of Galloway by David II. He built his castle at Threave and founded a dynasty that would last for the next four generations.
In 1473 the castle was granted to William Douglas of Leswalt, prior of Candecasa Cathedral (Whithorn). It was probably around this time the final phase of building was undertaken. The remains of the old castle were cleared and a tower house built, surrounded by a curtain wall. It is this building from which the stone arch survives today, a remnant of what was once a vaulted basement.
In 1563 the spies of Queen Elizabeth I of England visited south-west Scotland to examine the defences at Cruggleton, Wigtown, Cardoness and Kirkcudbright. They noted that Cruggleton “is now kept but with 2 men only but when the Prior of Whithorn lies there, then under 20 men without artillery.” Following the reformation, Commendators were appointed to take over church property and the Commentdator for Whithorn between 1569 and 1589 was Lord Robert Stewart, the illegitimate son of James V, who was besieged in the castle on 23rd April 1569 by Lord Fleming. The Earl of Moray wrote to Sir Patrick Vaus, a judge, asking him to intervene and he settled the dispute in favour of his wife, Margaret Fleming Stewart.
In 1598, their son Sir John Vaus sold the property to Peter McDowall of Machermore, who sold it in 1606 to James Kennedy, who took up residence in the castle. A late glimpse of the castle as a functioning building is given in 1613, when following a dispute, Alexander Mortoun is seized and imprisoned at Cruggleton by James Kennedy19. In 1642 the castle and its lands were secured by the Agnews of Lochnaw, who pulled most of it down to build steadings20. It remained with the Agnews until it was described by Symson in 1684 as ‘wholly ruinous’21.
Cruggleton Church
Fergus seems to have been the likely founder of nearby Cruggleton Church, built towards the middle of the twelfth century with a strong architectural influence from Whithorn and remarkably well built for a parish church of this time and in this area. It is one of the few remaining examples of Norman influenced Romanesque architecture in Galloway. Cruggleton once formed its own parish and the church may mark the site of the old village, but as yet, no remains have so far been found.
By the time Symson wrote ‘A Large Description of Galloway’ circa 1684, the parish of Cruggleton had been merged with Sorbie and the church had also fallen out of use. It too is described as a ruin and so it remained for a further 200 years until great storm blew down the last gable in 188422. It was decided to restore the building before it was lost completely. The Marquess of Bute undertook the restoration with the architect William Galloway, who also restored Kirkmadrine Church. A small enclosure on the south side of the church was marked out during the restoration, this is known as the McKerlie vault. It is odd that no grave markers seem to be present in the burial ground, with just two inside the church, which date from after the merger with Sorbie Parish. Perhaps they were removed during the 1890 restoration, but as none appear in E. Marianne H. McKerlie’s illustration of the church ruins before it was restored, it seems maybe they may never have been present. The church fell out of use before the widespread popularity of gravestones in the 18th and 19th centuries, which may explain their absence.
Heroic tales of Cruggleton
The tale of how Wallace and Kerlie took the castle by stealth during the Wars of Scottish Independence, related above, is not the only heroic tale associated with Cruggleton Castle. Another tale, the legend of the Old Boatman of Cruggleton23 is set in the years following the death of David I in 1153, when the Norsemen tried to recover their supremacy in Galloway.
This is a story of an attempt to recapture the castle by supernatural means. Knowledge of the intended attempt had been received by the MacCairills through a retainer, once a prisoner in Norway and familiar with the language. He had discovered the plot during his diplomatic errands between the Chief of the MacCairills and King Haco of Norway.
The dreaded Reafen, an enchanted standard woven out of a lions mane, with a raven on its field and supplied with blood at midnight to preserve its terrible powers, was entrusted to an old Norse Boatman, who arrived at night at the foot of the cliffs below the castle. He began his ascent of the path up to the castle. The success of his mission depended on him gaining entrance within the walls to unfurl the Reafen, when the castle would revert to his nation, and, amid the astonishment, and doubtless the terror of its holders, the prepared ambush would rush in and complete the conquest by massacre.
Forewarned, the MacCairils, strong in Christian faith, were prepared. They watched the Boatman climbing towards the castle. When a challenge was shouted out, the Boatman replied he was the bearer of a message for the Chief of the MacCairills from King Haco. Permitted to enter he was seized, the standard wrenched from him and dragged to the gallows awaiting him.
The prisoner declared his allegiance to Norway and the subjugation of the castle by the presence of the standard within. Then, with an invocation to the Scandinavian deities, he ended with the prophecy that on every anniversary, to the end of time, he would return with the standard to unfurl it over the castle walls. Wrestling a hand free, he took a dagger and plunged it into his own chest before his captors could hang him. The ambush failed and the Norsemen left, never to return.
The terrifying standard remained in the castle until it was decided that it should be burned in the courtyard. A peal of thunder shook the castle and a female form of ‘gigantic proportions’ snatched it from the pyre, and soaring aloft, was lost in the bosom of the clouds. The Boatman is said to have lived up to his promise and continued to his annual visit, the last recorded being in the eighteenth century.
Joseph Train, that well known provider of raw materials to Walter Scott, details another story about Cruggleton Castle in an 1817 letter to his benefactor. The McCulloch laird lives at Kirkclaugh Mote, a formidable stronghold, perched on cliffs on the eastern side of Wigtown Bay, with his only daughter Alicia. A stranger arrives at their door one day, asking for food and shelter. He is Dougal Graeme of the borders and a member of the reiver clan led by Sir David Armstrong. He quickly ingratiates himself with the laird, performing useful tasks and strengthening the castle defences, but all the while, he is using this as cover to introduce more of his clan to the castle.
Graeme seizes the castle, murders McCulloch and forcibly marries his daughter, who bears his daughter Effie, before dying of a broken heart. He begins a reign of terror on his neighbourhood, plundering and murdering, raising his daughter as an accomplice in his atrocities.
Across Wigtown bay lived Sir Roland Kerlie, at Cruggleton with his son Alan. Graeme had long envied their position and allied himself with the Featherstones of Cumberland, who were engaged in a feud with the Kerlies, to hatch a plot for their downfall. The Kerlie ship with Alan on board, one day ran into trouble while out at sea and sailed for cover to a bay at the Isle of Man. There the ship was besieged by the Featherstones. Recognising her chance, the Graeme ships, under the command of Effie, swept down upon the Kerlie vessel and made the crew captive, but she falls violently in love with the youthful Alan. She escorts him back to Cruggleton, where she stays with him for a week, at the end of which she proposes to him, but is refused. Effie returns to Kirklaugh, where the tale of the Reafen is related to her and she attempts a surprise attack on Cruggleton in the guise of the Boatman carrying his supernatural banner. But the Kerlies are prepared and slaughter hundreds of their attackers, including Effie and Dougal Graeme. They then cross the water and lay waste to Kirkclaugh.
There is no documentary evidence to support the Kerlie’s claim to have ever owned Cruggleton Castle. Although the tale seems to be set in the medieval period, the first McCulloch to take up residence at Kirklaugh was in 1614 and the Graemes were banished to Ireland by James I/IV in 160724. The characters of Roland and Alan Kerlie are seemingly based on the 12th and 13th century Lords of Galloway25. So what we seem to have here is the kernel of an old tale, trimmed with 17th century additions, possibly influenced by William De Soulis’ 13th century deceit and Blind Harry’s account of William Wallace’s storming of the castle.
The details of the story are remarkably similar to those of ‘The Standard of Denmark’, a long and torturous tale, related by James Denniston in his 1825 book, ‘Legends of Galloway’, only changing a few details, such as placing Dougal’s original deceit to Cruggleton rather than Kirkclaugh. It seems that either both authors had access to a common source, or somehow Denniston plagiarised Train. He also related a version of the tale of the Boatman, this time with a Viking fleet hauling up their boats for repair nearby (probably Rigg Bay).
An interesting note in Dennison’s version of the tale is that the bodies of those slain in the battle were buried at Cruggleton Church. Could this be a vague memory dating from a time when the castle was besieged during the medieval period? Perhaps this could account for the contents of the area beside the church known as the McKerlie Vault? A possible explanation for the lack of tombstones, being the grounds are one big war grave? Probably not, but it is a tantalising thought none-the-less for such an enigmatic place, which has played an important role in the long history of Scotland, both real and imagined.
References
1. A History of Dumfries and Galloway – Herbert Maxwell (1896).
2. Ibid.
3. Annals of Ulster.
4. Galloway: Land and Lordship – Richard D. Oram (1991).
5. Galloway in Ancient and Modern Times – P.H. McKerlie (1891).
6. The Lordship of Galloway – Richard D. Oram (2001).
7. McKerlie (1891).
8. The New Statistical Account of Scotland Vol IV (1845).
9. Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500 to 1286 – A.O. Anderson (1908).
10. Maxwell (1896).
11. Wild Men and Holy Places – Daphne Brooke (1994).
12. Anderson (1908).
13. Brooke (1994).
14. Ibid.
15. This was disputed by P.H. McKerlie in ‘Lands and their Owners in Galloway’, who claims the castle remained in the possession of Kerle, a native chief.
16. The history of Galloway, from the earliest period to the present time – William Mackenzie (1841).
17. McKerlie (1891).
18. Makenzie (1841).
19. DGNHAS Transactions and Journal of Proceedings 1929-30 Third Series Volume 16 – R.C. Reid.
20. Ibid.
21. A Large Description Of Galloway – Andrew Symson (1823).
22. Pilgrim Spots in Galloway – E. Marianne H. McKerlie (1916).
23. E. Marianne H. McKerlie (1916).
24. DGNHAS Transactions and Journal of Proceedings 1931-32 Third Series Volume 18 – R.C. Reid.
25. Ibid.
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