Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

CASTLECARY
booter. The estate of Harviestoto, on which Castle-
Campbell stands, was purchased from the Taits in 1859
by the late Sir Andrew Orr. See Billings' Baronial
Antiquities (1852).
Castlecary, a spot near the western border of Falkirk
parish, SE Stirlingshire, on the left bank of the Red
Burn, and on the Forth and Clyde Canal, the Edinburgh
and Glasgow section of the North British railway, and
the Gartsherrie and Greenhead section of the Caledonian,
2J miles NE of Cumbernauld, and 6i W by S of Falkirk.
One of the principal stations on Antoninus' Wall was
here, and was connected by an iter with the S. What
with the ploughshare, and what with builders in quest
of stones for their dykes, it now is wholly effaced ; but
many Roman antiquities have been found on and near
its site — urns, coins, weapons, altars, etc. Castlecary
Castle is an old square tower, 40 feet high, with walls of
5 feet thickness, a spiral staircase, secret passages, and
an eastern addition bearing date 1679. Burned by a
party of Highlanders in the '15, it is now the property
of the Earl of Zetland, and is kept in tolerable repair.
At the top of its garden is a noble yew, girthing 8 J feet
at 1 yard from the ground. The Eed Burn's glen to the
W, a rich field for the botanist, here forms the boundary
between Dumbarton and Stirling shires, and is crossed
by a splendid eight-arched viaduct of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow railway. Castlecary station on that railway is
just beyond ; in the winter of 1872-73 it was very severely
damaged by a singular subsidence, due to great mining
excavations for limestone. See pp. 72-76 of Proceedings
of the Alloa Society (1875).
Castle Clanyard, a ruined tower in Kirkmaiden parish,
SW Wigtownshire, \ mile ESE of Clanyard Bay and \\
WNW of Kirkmaiden church. It belonged to a branch
of the Gordons of Kenmure, and must once have been a
splendid residence.
Castlecluggy, a ruined fortalice in Monzievaird and
Strowan parish, Perthshire, on a peninsula at the N end
of Monzievaird Loch. Long defended by a fosse with a
drawbridge, it seems to have been very strong and of
considerable extent, but is now represented by only a
low square tower, with walls 5 or 6 feet thick and as
hard as iron. According to Rymer's Fceclera, Malise,
Earl of Strathearn, was here besieged about 1306 by
Robert Bruce.
Castle-Coefiin, an ancient fortalice in Appin, Argyll-
shire, on a small peninsula of Loch Linnhe, opposite
Castle-Mearnaig. Said to have been built, for purposes
of defence, by a Danish prince of the name of Coeffin, it
seems from its architecture coeval with Castle-Shima,
but now consists of nothing more than broken ivy-clad
walls.
Castle-Cole, an ancient fortalice in Clyne parish, SE
Sutherland, on the E side of the Black Water, 1J mile
above that river's junction with the Brora. One of the
structures once so common in the N of Scotland, and
known as Pictish towers, it has an oblong form, with
uncemented walls 11 feet thick, and with a doorway 5
feet high and 3 wide ; within the walls it measured 22
feet in length ; but it now is reduced to merely the
lower part of the S and E walls, about 12 feet high. It
was formerly surrounded with a defensive work, 6 feet
from its exterior, and with a line of watch-towers on-
ward to the coast ; and it must, in the times before the
invention of gunpowder, have been impregnable.
Castleeraig, a ruined ancient residence in the W end
of Kirkmichael parish, Ross-shire, on the brow of a pre-
cipice, overhanging Cromarty Firth. It is said to have
been erected by the Urquharts, Barons of Cromarty ;
and it was long the principal residence of the Bishops of
Ross. It originally consisted of only a tower, but from
time to time received extensive additions ; and it was
once surrounded by a defensive wall, 12 or 13 feet high.
Now it is reduced to merely one tower or single wing,
probably the original keep, 50 feet high from the ground
to the top of the chimney.
Castleeraig, a fortalice in Nigg parish, Ross-shire, on
the top of a rock fronting Cromarty. Said to have been
built by William the Lyon for the suppression of robbers,
218
CASTLE-DOUGLAS
it is now so nearly obliterated that only the foundations
are traceable ; but it still gives name to the farm sur-
rounding it.
Castle Craig, an estate, with a modern mansion, in
the N of Kirkurd parish, W Peeblesshire, near the right
bank of Tarth Water, 6 miles SE of Dolphinton station.
Its owner, the Rev. Sir Wm. Hy. Gibson-Carmiehael
of Skirling, thirteenth Bart, since 1628 (b. 1827 ; sue.
1855), holds 8756 acres in Peeblesshire and 732 in Edin-
burghshire, valued respectively at £5796 and £4624 per
annum.
Castleeraig or Castlegregg. See Calder, Mid.
Castle-Craignish. See Craignish.
Castlecrofts. See Dalmellington.
Castle-Dangerous. See Douglas.
Castle-Donnan, a fine old ruined castle in Eintail
parish, SW Ross-shire, in the immediate vicinity of
Dornie village. Given by Alexander III., after the
battle of Largs, to Colin Fitzgerald, it has long been in
a state of ruin.
Castle-Douglas, a town in the N of Kelton parish,
Kirkcudbrightshire. Prettily situated at the N end of
Carlinwark Loch, with a background of low rounded
hills, it is the junction of three lines of railway — to
Dumfries (opened 1860), Portpatrick (1S61), and Kirk-
cudbright (1S64)— being 194 miles SW of Dumfries, 61
E by N of Portpatrick, 10J NNE of Kirkcudbright,
113§ SW by S of Edinburgh, and llli S by E of Glas-
gow. Till 1765 it was but the tiny hamlet of Cause-
wayend, and its growth to the thriving village of Car-
linwark was due to the famous marl-pits of the loch ;
in 1792, becoming the property of Sir William Douglas
of Gelston, it was re-nametl by him Castle-Douglas, and
was erected into a burgh of barony. Under an extended
charter (1829), it elects triennially a provost, a senior
bailie, and 7 councillors, the magistrates acting also as
police commissioners ; sheriff small debt courts sit in
January, April, June, and September, and justice of
peace courts on the first Monday of every month. An
important market is held on Monday, and the following
are the fairs throughout the year : — horses and hiring,
11 Feb. if Monday, otherwise on Monday after ; hiring,
23 March, if Monday, etc. ; hoggets, Monday before 24
April ; hiring, Monday of June before Kelton-hill ; lambs,
Monday of August before Lockerbie ; hiring, 23 Sept. ,
if Monday, etc. ; horses, Monday of November before
Dumfries ; and hiring, Monday of November after Mar-
tinmas. The town is laid out in regular squares, with
a main, two back, and four cross streets ; and it has a
post office, with money order, savings' bank, insurance,
and telegraph departments, branches of the Bank of
Scotland, the British Linen Co. , and the National and
Union Banks, a savings' bank, 13 insurance agencies, 7
hotels, a fine bowling green, a tannery, a skinnery, an
iron-foundry, a farming implement works, a mineral water
factory, and a Friday paper, the Kirkcudbrightshire Ad-
vertiser (185S). A new town-hall was built of red free-
stone in 1862 at a cost of £1300, and besides a large
hall, capable of containing from 500 to 600 persons, it
has a reading-room and library of the Mechanics' Insti-
tute ; the old town-hall, with a clock-tower, is occupied
now as a billiard-room. Since 1873 a quoad sacra parish
in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright and synod of Gal-
loway, Castle-Douglas possesses six places of worship —
the Established church (186S), a good Gothic edifice ;
King Street and MacmiUan Free churches ; a U.P. church
(1870) ; St Ninian's Episcopal church ; and St John's
Roman Catholic (1867). Of the two Free churches, that
in Eing Street is a recent erection, with a spire and a
handsome stained E window ; whilst MacmiUan church
is the former Reformed Presbyterian chapel, with the
addition of a memorial spire. St Ninian's is a beautiful
Early English structure, with tower and spire, com-
pleted and consecrated in 1S74, but begnn many years
before ; and St John's, too, has a spire 80 feet high.
School B, at the head of Colton Street, was opened in
1877, shortly before which date School A, in Academy
Street, was greatly enlarged. With respective accom-
modation for 300 and 173 children, these had (1S80) an