dumfries-1920/04-207

Transcription

JOHNSTONE.] HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION. [JOHNSTONE.

wheel-stair contained within the short wing,
is divided into two vaulted compartments,
each furnished with a ceiling hatch and lit
by long narrow windows with jambs widely
splayed to the interior. Beneath the easter[n]
cellar is a prison 21 feet 4 inches long
and 5 feet 7 inches wide; access to this is
gained by a straight stair entered from the
short passage between the wheel-stair in the
smaller wing and the eastern cellar. The
door in the passage appears to have folded
vertically in leaves, for a recess and groove
1 inch deep, in which such a door might
slide, are worked on the lintel. There is no
window, but a ventilation outlet is provided
in the east wall. A bulkhead is formed in the
cellar above to obtain the necessary headroom
in the dungeon. From the general arrange-
ment of the plan the tower appears to have
been built in the 15th century.
The outbuildings to the north, which were
apparently erected at a later period, formed
the eastern boundary of a courtyard, while
traces of a smaller courtyard to the west
are evident.
Lochwood was the principal seat of the
Johnstones. As described by its English
captors in 1547, "It was a fair large tower,
able to lodge all our company safely, with a
barnekin, hall, kitchen, and stables, all within
the barnekin, and was but kept with two or
three fellows and as many wenches." [Footnote] 1 In
April 1585 Robert Maxwell with his friends
and some Armstrongs attacked and burnt
Lochwood, " the Lardes (i.e. Johnstone's)
owne howse," and its provision of victuals. [Footnote] 2
Cf. further Introd., p. lxv.

1 Cited in History of Westmorland and Cum-
berland, Nicolson and Burn, vol. i., p. liv. ;
2 Border Papers, i. No. 303.
xxiv. S.E. 10 May 1912.

DEFENSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS.

316. Mote, Lochwood. - This mote, com-
monly called " The Mount," is situated in a
wood of aged oak trees, just to the north of the
ruins of Lochwood Castle, and looks out to the
eastward over the plain of Upper Annandale.
It is formed from a natural hillock crowning
a slope rising from the east and mounting
from a hollow on the west. From the latter
direction it has a vertical elevation of some
22 feet; but from its base on the east, along
which runs the roadway, it rises to a height
of 44 feet or thereby.
Two terraces encircle it: the upper one on
the west side, at some 10 feet below the
summit level, dipping on the longer western
slope to 20 feet, and the lower one varying
from 8 to 10 feet further down. On the east
side and round by the north, both terraces
show a parapet, and on the south the lower
takes a trench-like aspect with a bold rampart
cutting it off from the ground beyond, on
which the later castle has stood. On the
north the hillock does not slope directly to
its base from the parapet of the lower terrace,
but presents a narrow bench crowned at its
edge with a rampart, from which there is
a scarp some 5 to 6 feet in height to the
lowest level. To the eastward this bench
gradually merges with the narrow terrace
above it, and to westward it slopes away
to a lower level, leaving the rampart extend-
ing onwards in that direction, and containing
within it an area too low lying to have formed
a base-court. Towards the south-east the
upper terrace forms a salient angle; and
directly below it there is a gap, which has
probably been an entrance through the outer
mound, some 7 feet in width, towards which,
between two parallel mounds, what may have
been a roadway may be seen approaching
directly to it on the opposite side of the
present road. Westward from this supposed
approach, and facing the south, there is a
space, some 12 to 14 feet in breadth, reach-
ing downward from the edge of the summit,
interrupting the upper terrace and scarped
at a flatter angle than the rest of the
mound, up the west side of which there is a
distinct suggestion of a track, which makes a
sharp turn to the eastward at the highest
level before entering on to the summit at its
south-east point. On the east side of this
space, stretching from the summit to the
trench-like hollow of the lower terrace, there
is visible a stony artificial ridge. The
summit is oval, measuring superficially some
24 feet by 16 feet, and has been hollowed
to a depth of some 18 inches, with a wall
formed in part of natural rock left around
the edge.
xxiv. S.E. (unnoted). 14 September 1912.

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