(94) Plate XLIV/a

                                                            Plate XLIV.

                                         ROWALAN CASTLE.

WE cannot discover, in all the researches we have been enabled to make, any account whatever of
Rowalan Castle, and the following is the only sketch we have been enabled to give of the family and
place, through the kindness of its present noble owner.

This castle, which is in Ayrshire, is the ancient seat of the Mores, or Muirs, of Rowalan. Of this
family the celebrated Elizabeth Muir was a daughter. She married in 1334, Robert II. of Scotland, whose
eldest son John, Lord Kyle, was called to the throne on the death of his father, under the title of
Robert III. The family of the Stewarts were his immediate descendants.

The only part of the old, castle which now remains, is the keep or dungeon; all the rest is much more
modern: but there is an inscription upon the front of this part, bearing the date of 1502, and on the same
stone pediment are the arms of the family. The first of the ancient family of the Muirs, as appears from
their charters, was Sir Gilbert Muir, who so distinguished himself against the Danes at the battle of
Langs, in 1263, as to receive from Alexander III, the lands of Rowalan.

Sir James Campbell, of Lawers, brother of Hugh, earl of Loudoun, married lady Jane, eldest daughter
of David, earl of Glasgow, who was, in right of her mother, heiress of Rowalan. The estate descended
in consequence to James, their only son, who, on the decease of his cousin John, earl of Loudoun, succeeded
to that earldom. Upon the death of James, it came to his only child, Flora, now countess of Loudoun,
the present representative of the three ancient families of Rowalan, Lawers, and Loudoun.—This view
was taken in 1800.