Cessford Castle
Cessford Castle is a ruined castle with an L-shaped floor plan near the village of Cessford , halfway between the towns of Jedburgh and Kelso and the village of Kirk Yetholm in the historic Scottish county of Roxburghshire (now part of the Scottish Borders ). The castle was the caput of the Barony of Cessford and the main fortress of Clan Ker , infamous Border Reivers , many of whom had served as Wardens, often the Middle March .
Historic Scotland has listed the ruin as a Category B Historic Building.
history
overview
Cessford Castle had Andrew Ker , ancestor of Robert Ker, 1st Earl of Roxburghe , and ancestor of the Dukes of Roxburghe , built around 1450 . After this place the subordinate titles of the dukes are named: Baron Ker of Cessford and Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford . It is possible that the castle contained parts of earlier buildings. The fortress was built with an L-shaped floor plan, with a main donjon and a wing almost the same size. The six-story building, two of which had barrel vaults , and walls up to 3.9 meters thick, was easy to defend. In the inner corner of the building there was a one-story gatehouse and the whole complex was enclosed by a fence and earthworks for defense. These facts were confirmed by the records of English troops who had to use ladders to gain access to the courtyard during a siege in 1523. The castle was then besieged by the troops of the Earl of Surrey , who remarked: "It would probably never have been taken if the attacked had been able to continue defending it." The castle was last inhabited in 1650.
Historical events
After Berwick-upon-Tweed in July 1482 by the troops of King Richard III. England had been taken, let Henry Percy , the Earl of Northumberland , burn down a number of places in the area. At the end of this campaign on August 22, 1482, he made twenty of his soldiers knights on the " Mains of Sessford ".
Individual evidence
- ^ Francis Hindes Groome: Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland in VI Vols . Thomas C. Jack, Edinburgh 1884. p. 258.
- ^ Walter Charles Metcalfe: A book of Knights Banneret etc. London 1885. pp. 5-6.
- ↑ Edward Hall: Chronicle . 1809. p. 332: BL Cotton Ms. Claudius. c.iii. fol. 61-67.
Web links
Coordinates: 55 ° 30'27.7 " N , 2 ° 24'59" W.