Corsehill Castle

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The remains of Corsehill Castle

Corse Hill Castle , also Ravenscraig Castle is a ruined castle in the Baillerie of Cunninghame near Stewarton in the Scottish management unit East Ayrshire . Corsehill House is said to have stood nearby , a mansion of which nothing has survived today.

Documents and ruins

1451 was noted in the Registrum Magni Sigilli in "Stewartoune" (Stewarton), Ayrshire , "Le Mote de Casteltoune". There has been considerable confusion about the location and naming of these buildings. The name "Ravenscraig" is probably a corruption of "Reuincraig", which in turn is derived from "Ruin Crag" (German: stone ruin). So it's less a name than a description. We know from historical records of Godfrey de Ross and his family at Corsehill Castle that they were the Lords of Liddesdale in the Scottish Borders and later the Cunninghams became the keepers. The later Corsehill House (or Crosshill House ) stood on the east side of Corsehill Burn or Clerkland Burn , and there are said to have been few remains that marked the site, but the Ordnance Survey map of 1860 shows no ruins of it, and today there is nothing to be seen at this point.

Corsehill House shows an old print by Grose from 1789 with the note: "A little stretch from this ruin there are some small remains of an older building belonging to the same family." This refers to the old Corsehill Castle, while the drawing is Corsehill House showing the gentleman's home at that time. Significant remains of Corsehill House were in place until the railroad line was built and most of the building blocks from the ruin were used to build the creek bank. The course of the creek was also changed at this time. Armstrong's 1775 map shows that Corsehill Castle was clearly visible on the east bank of Corsehill Burn . The single section of the tower wall that still exists today from Corsehill Castle or Ravenscraig Castle has undergone extensive repairs to stabilize it, giving it an unusual appearance, emphasized by the existence of a fireplace on the east side. No explanation has yet been found for the execution of this extensive and expensive repair work.

A number of authors suggested that the remains of the tower that have survived to this day corresponded to a certain part of Grosse's engraving, but the nearly three meters thick and other details of this clearly younger building, together with data from the maps, indicate otherwise. In addition, the Ordnance Survey map shows a tower castle with a typical square or rectangular floor plan and not a relatively unpaved mansion with in comparison z. B. to the Place of Auchinleck thin walls and many doors on the ground floor. The footprint of Corsehill House, as shown by the engraving, also appears much too large for the hill on which the remains of Corsehill Castle, which have survived to this day, stand. Unfortunately, the 1779 Crawford map does not clearly show Corsehill as a ruin, even though the Lands of Cocklebie had already spread across the once prestigious avenue of trees.

Herman Moll's 1745 map shows a “Reuinsk” west of the Clerkland Burn and “Corsehill” west of it, while Roy's 1747 map shows a square “Old Crosshill” and a U-shaped “Crosshill” west of the creek, as well as a “Main "-Farm. Armstrong's 1775 map shows "Ruins" and "Corsehill," pictured as a house, to the west of it.

Dobie categorically states that there is no record of a "Ravenscraig Castle" in Ayrshire, that the building west of Corsehill Burn has been in ruins since 1608 and that the site on which they were located was once called "Corsehill Park". It should be noted that a common raven (English "Raven") in Scottish Gaelic is a "Raen" or "Ra'en". Above Kirkwood near Dunlop is an estate called "Ravenslie". In 1820 David Cunninghame was the owner and received a lease of £ 39 13 s 4 d.

The 1654 Blaeu map is based on Timothy Pont's earlier map and indicates “Reuinskraig” on the west side of Clerkland Burn and “Corshill” on the east side. Both properties are shown in the same way, without any clear statement that “Reuinskraig” is a ruin. The map of the Lainshaw estates from 1779 shows Corsehill as a relatively small and apparently intact property on the east side of Corsehill Burn or Clerkland Burn , accessed by a road that branches off at the Lands of Cocklebie , over the highest point of today's Cunninghame Watt - Parks leads and then uphill to the house. An avenue of trees led down to the settlement, but it was interrupted by some of the Lands of Cocklebie that appear not yet planted. The castle ruin is shown as a preserved part of the residential tower and is otherwise unnamed. The whole area is called "Corsehill Lands". Surprisingly, only 10 years after surveying the property , Grose shows Corsehill House as an abandoned and rather derelict ruin.

The 1828 map by William Johnson mentions Corsehill only on the east side of the creek. The 1776 map by Taylor & Skinner shows a "Corsehill" only as a residence owned by Sir "William Cunynham".

The remains of the dam at Corsehill Burn
Engraving of the ruins of Corsehill House, of which no trace is preserved today (1789).

The so-called "Ravenscraig Castle" or "Corsehill Castle" on the one hand and the "Corsehill House" on the other hand were therefore different buildings. A vague memory of a "Templehouse" and its fortress in Darlington on Corsehill Farm land may still be left, adding to the confusion. "Corsehill", "Corshill" or even "Crosshill" are often mentioned in old sources, never "Ravenscraig", but more often "Reuincraig". As stated above, it is unlikely that this is anything other than describing a ruin that was also known as "Corsehill", "Ruined Corsehill", "Reuinedcraig", "Ravencraig" and finally "Ravenscraig".

Archibald Adamson does not mention the name "Ravenscraig" in his Rambles Round Kilmarnock of 1875 and calls the place he had visited "Corsehill". Aitken locates "Crosshill Castle" in 1829 on the west side of Corsehill Burn . The first Ordnance Survey map only shows the location of a preserved castle.

To complement this, Pont s, Cuninghame from 1604 shows two buildings, “Reuincraige” and “Corshill” in positions NS 417 467 and NS 422 465 and Dobie writes that the two were often confused, but that “Reuincraig” on the Corsehill Burn would be on the west side and Corsehill Mansion on the east side. “Reuincraig”, he writes, “(...) was so modernized around 1840 that it was difficult to see that it was a ruin in 1608”, whereas “Corsehill House” was removed at the beginning of the 19th century and only foundations could be found when he wrote this. He also thought that "Reuincraig" (ie: "Ruin Craig") was not the original name. If Dobie is right, then the ruins that have been dubbed "Corsehill Castle" must be those of "Reuincraig" both because ruins remain there and because they are on the west bank of the creek.

MacGibbon and Ross described Corsehill Castle at the end of the 19th century as a very ruinous house of later date and apparently with an L-shaped floor plan from the period 1542–1700. So they must refer to Corsehill House. Grose published an illustration of "Corsehill House" but does not give its exact location. He mentions that "a short distance from this ruin are some smaller remains of an older building belonging to the same family"; it evidently refers to the old Corsehill Castle.

Auchinleck Place 1789 (drawing by Francis Grose )

General Roy 's Military Survey of Scotland (1745-1755) marked Ravenscraig Castle as "Old Corse Hill" and also "[New] Corse Hill" on the other side of the creek, which he confirmed clearly that both the same name had and the one the other replaced, even if only "Old Corsehill" is still visible in any way; only some of the foundations of "[New] Corsehill" were still visible in 2007, the rest of the house was removed in the 19th century. Some traces of a badly muddy ditch have been preserved, which could have been a path that branched off the Stewarton-Dunlop road and led to the castle and then on to the cattle path that disappeared under the railway line and once led to the place where at the Corsehill House.

The beautiful old sandstone bridge over which the road to Corsehill led was demolished in the early 1990s. A local legend reported that the iron "Jougs" were used to imprison witches, but it can also be that they were connected to the functions of the barons' court of the old Barony of Corsehill, whose records are still preserved today get the supplies.

Adamson noted on his wandering in 1875 that the old Corsehill Castle was never very large and that the surviving remains showed signs of recent repairs. A great treasure is said to lie under the foundations in a dark chamber and, when a man from the area began digging in search of it, a voice is said to have come from below, saying: “Don't dig any further in the ruins of Ravenscraig”.

A tunnel or secret passage is said to run from the nearby old Corsehill Castle down to Annick Water just upstream from Lainshaw Castle . The grandfather of a local man was probably crawling through the tunnel. This tunnel could be connected to the runoff from a nearby flooded quarry, the watershed, or other Lainshaw Estate land .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Moot Hills . Archeology Data Service. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  2. ^ A b c d e F. Grose: The antiquities of Scotland . 2v, London 1789-1791. P. 215.
  3. ^ David Cuningham Cuthbertson: Autumn in Kyle and the Charm of Cunninghame . Jenkins, London 1945. p. 178.
  4. ↑ a b c Entry on Corsehill Castle  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
  5. ↑ Ayr Sheet XIII.5 (Stewarton) . Surveyed: 1856. Published: 1858. National Library of Scotland. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  6. ^ A b W. Crawford: Pan of the Estate of Lainshaw lying in the Parish of Stewarton and County of Ayr . 1779.
  7. ^ Herman Moll: The Shire of Renfrew with Cuningham. The North Part of Air . 1745.
  8. ^ William Roy: Roy Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-1755 . 1747.
  9. ^ Andrew Armstrong: A New Map of Ayrshire . 1775.
  10. ↑ Dobie. P. 367.
  11. ^ The Online Scots Dictionary - Translate English to Scots . Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  12. ^ Robertson. 1820.
  13. ^ Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654 . National Library of Scotland. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  14. ^ William Johnson: Map of Ayrshire from estate plans . 1828.
  15. ^ G Taylor and A Skinner's Survey and maps of the roads of North Britain or Scotland, 1776 . National Library of Scotland. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  16. ^ A b R. Archibald Adamson: Rambles Round Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock 1875. p. 156.
  17. ↑ a b Dobie.
  18. ^ T. MacGibbon, D. Ross: The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries . 5v, Edinburgh 1887-1892. P. 495.
  19. ↑ Corsehill Baron-Court Book. Archaeological & Historical Collections relating to the counties of Ayr and Wigton . Ayr & Wigton Arch Association, 1884.
  20. ↑ George Brown: Oral communication to Roger Griffith . 2006. S. Ll.
  21. ↑ Davie Hewitt: Oral communication to Roger Griffith . 2006.

Web links

Commons : Corsehill Castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 55 ° 41 '12.4 "  N , 4 ° 31' 9.3"  W.