| Cumbernauld Castle | |
|---|---|
| Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, Scotland | |
 The Comyn Motte at Cumbernauld Park | |
  Cumbernauld Castle | |
| Coordinates | 55°57′43″N3°57′51″W / 55.961920°N 3.964127°W |
| Site information | |
| Condition | Ruined |
Cumbernauld Castle was the predecessor of Cumbernauld House in the Park in Cumbernauld. The Motte of the earliest castle survives, and stones of the second castle are incorporated in the present house.
The first castle was owned by the Comyn Family and was granted to the Fleming family after Robert the Bruce killed John 'the Red' Comyn in 1306 in Greyfriars kirk. The Motte of this Motte and Bailey castle can still be made out in Cumbernauld House Park just north-east (approximately 360 metres (1,180 ft)) of Cumbernauld House. The Fleming family then constructed the second and larger castle on the site. Recent research [1] has uncovered a charter, dated 3 November 1421, was issued at Cumbernauld Castle and was used to formally grant James Fleming his father's land, following allegations of murder.
When the Flemings came to construct their castle at the end of the 14th century, the best they would have been able to build would have been a strong stone tower. The country was much too impoverished to permit anything more ambitious, such as the great courtyard strongholds built before the death of Alexander III.
Such a tower would have been an "L-Plan", a rectangular block with a wing projecting at the end of one of the long sides. A few small timber or stone outbuildings would also have been attached. As time went on, and the power and influence of the family grew, the castle would have been enlarged by the addition of other stone structures, such as a great hall for festive occasions. In March 1544, an unexpected English visitor during the War of the Rough Wooing, Edmund Storey, a servant of Thomas Wharton, described his reception by Lord Fleming;
"On the morrow, in riding towards Stirling, we came to Lord Fleming's castle of Cumbernall, and alighted near the castle gates, at which the Scotsman knocked and told the porter that a servant of the Master of Maxwell's came with a message. Thus I got access to Flemyng and said that a servant of Lord Wharton's was at the gates with letters for him. He was astonished, but sent for me, I thereupon delivered him the King's letters both to him and Maxwell. He kissed the letters and took off his bonnet, saying: "Jesus benedicite! how thou durst come hither into this country? but I am glad that thou art come to my house, and since thou art here the highest stone shall be the lowest ere thou shalt take any skaith." " [2]
Lord Fleming meant that he rather see his house destroyed than any harm come to this English visitor. The site of this castle is where Cumbernauld house stands today and although the original tower has disappeared, blocks of its masonry can be picked out amongst the stones used to construct Cumbernauld House.
Part of the courtyard buildings are still standing, particularly the wall that separates the lower service area from the car park. On the lower side of this, there is a long row of corbels or projecting stones, of a distinctive 16th century pattern, designed to support timbers of a lean-to building.
The castle played host to the royalty of Scotland. James IV wooed Margaret Drummond at Cumbernauld Castle, where Margaret's sister was married to Lord Fleming. The Drummonds' sisters lie buried in Dunblane Cathedral following their poisoning by a government determined to marry an unwilling King James to the sister of Henry VIII of England, Margaret Tudor. The murders made James IV a frequent visitor to Cumbernauld, Margaret Tudor accompanying him on one occasion.
Mary Fleming was one of the four "Queen's Maries". Mary and her brother, James, Lord Fleming went into exile with Mary, Queen of Scots in France in 1548. In 1558, Lord Fleming was one of the Scottish Commissioners arranging the Queen's marriage to the Dauphin of France, the future Francis II of France. Fleming and other commissioners died mysteriously on the voyage home, poison being suspected.
Mary, Queen of Scots, visited the castle and planted a yew tree at Castlecary Castle, only a mile or two away, which still grows there. The great hall collapsed while the queen was staying on 26 January 1562, and 7 or 8 men were killed. Most of the queen's party were out hunting, Mary was not hurt and visited the relatives of those who were injured or killed in the village below. [3]
During the Marian Civil War, John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming supported Mary, Queen of Scots and held Dumbarton Castle in her name. Regent Lennox sacked Cumbernauld in September 1570 and expelled his wife Elizabeth Ross and her three infant children. [4]
In 1640, eighteen Scottish noblemen met at Cumbernauld to sign the Cumbernauld Bond to oppose the policies of the Earl of Argyll who controlled the dominant political faction in Scotland. Cumbernauld may have been created a Burgh of barony in 1649, [5] although there is some dispute from Hugo Millar. The Earl of Wigton was ordered to garrison the castle in 1650. [6] Cumbernauld Castle was besieged and largely destroyed by Cromwell's General Monck in 1651. [7] Irvine records that the old castle was burned to the ground by "a party of Highlanders during the rebellion of 1715." [8]
Probably the earliest map which shows the castle is Pont's Map [9] but is much easier to pick out on Blaeu's coloured map [10] above. These are reminiscent of the modern Friends of the Glen map which is also a stylised representation of the Park. [11] Herman Moll's 1745 map has a brief mention of Cumbernard Castle even though it had been replaced by the House in 1731 unless the reference is to the stable destroyed in 1746. [12] The top section of Charles Ross' map from 1777 has a section on Cumernauld and shows the castle has been replaced by the house and also has some obscure placenames like Hollinhirst (sometimes spelled Holland Hirst or Holland Hirxt) which don't appear on modern maps. [13] None of the maps show the "Ridburn" or its tributaries with any accuracy, although The Bog Stank and Walton Burn seem to be shown. Another stream named as the Horseward Burn is mentioned and is shown to join with the Red Burn. The "Luggie fl." features on Pont as flowing into "Kirkintillo" but seems to have no connection with Cumbernauld or the mysterious Horseward Burn. On Pont 32 the Luggie originates in a neat archaeological note in Latin north-east of Glasgow. It says:
Vestigia valli Romanorum quod
videtur Agricolam aut Adrianum
Primum posuisse
Which translates as:
'the remains of the Roman fortification which
it seems Agricola or Hadrian
first built'
There is also Gordon's second and longer note, just west of Cumbernauld (lower centre), says:
"this part joyneth not w[ith] [th]e rest
of [th]e Lennox but outthruch to it
be annextion it is cald [th]e
parochin of [th]e Leinyie"
The dotted line running west–east across the map represents the line of the Roman Antonine Wall.
The Pont map overlaps with the Glasgow and Lanark Pont 34 [14] map which is the only one which is dated as near Kirkintilloch it says:
Sept. et
Octobr.
1596 Descri
pta
The Luggie W. is mentioned on that map too in large rotated handwriting but there is little clarity on the watercourse. Whether Pont had even heard of "The Meeting of the Waters" is unclear.
At the time of Queen Mary's visits, the park was still stocked with deer and wild white cattle. Many were taken for the table of Regent Lennox in Edinburgh in 1570 when John, Lord Fleming fought for the rights of the exiled Queen. John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, wrote of the white "kye" (cows); "this kind of kye and bullis hes bene thir mony yeres in the said forest, and the like was not mayntened in any other parte of this Ile of Albion, as is well known." [15]
Hector Boece mentioned the Caledonian white cattle at Cumbernauld in his Historia Gentis Scotorum, (1527), which were also kept in the Torwood Forest near Stirling. The Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner included an illustration in an appendix to his Historiae Animalium: Quadrupedes Ovipares, (1554), the picture was supplied by Gessner's Scottish correspondent Henry Sinclair, Dean of Glasgow. [16]
After the new house was built, the castle was converted to stables, and was burned down by dragoons posted here in 1746. One original wall can still be seen in the allotment area.
In 1963-64, Cumbernauld Historical society, in co-operation with Glasgow archaeological society excavated an area to the north-east of Cumbernauld House and uncovered part of the domestic periphery of the castle, comprising a 15th-century rubbish chute, an adjoining prison and cellar and a well house reached by a flight of steps. In 1981-82 Cumbernauld and Kilsyth district museums excavated an area adjacent to the earlier excavation and found a cobbled courtyard, the base of a circular building and significant walling. These excavations have been filled back in.
North Lanarkshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, and West Lothian. The council area covers parts of the historic counties of Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, and Stirlingshire. The council is based in Motherwell.
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.
Kilsyth is a town and civil parish in North Lanarkshire, roughly halfway between Glasgow and Stirling in Scotland. The estimated population is 10,380. The town is famous for the Battle of Kilsyth and the religious revivals of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The town now has links with Cumbernauld at one time being part of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth District Council. The towns also have the same members of parliament at Holyrood and Westminster.
Colzium House and Estate is about 500 metres to the north-east of Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The present house dates from 1783 and was extended and modernised in 1861. The name may mean "defile leap".
Kirkintilloch is a town and former barony burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal and on the south side of Strathkelvin, about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of central Glasgow. Historically part of Dunbartonshire, the town is the administrative home of East Dunbartonshire council area, its population in 2009 was estimated at 19,700 and its population in 2011 was 19,689.
Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox was a leader of the Catholic nobility in Scotland. He was the paternal grandfather of King James VI of Scotland. He owned Temple Newsam in Yorkshire, England.
Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Scotland. It sits on a volcanic plug of basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is 240 feet (73 m) high and overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton.
Darnley is an area in south-west Glasgow, Scotland, on the A727 just west of Arden. Other nearby neighbourhoods are Priesthill to the north, Southpark Village to the south, and South Nitshill and Parkhouse to the west; there is also a small industrial estate. The closest railway station is Priesthill and Darnley. The Brock Burn flows through the area.
Garnkirk is a settlement in North Lanarkshire, located a mile (1.5 km) southwest of Muirhead. It is located 10 km northeast of Glasgow's city centre and 23 km southwest of Falkirk. Garnkirk is connected via the nearby motorways M8, M73 and M80. This provides access to Cumbernauld, Glasgow and Stirling. The nearest modern railway stations are in Gartcosh and Stepps.
Cumbernauld House is an 18th-century Vivido Scottish country house located in Cumbernauld, Scotland. It is located near in the Cumbernauld Glen, close to Cumbernauld Village, at grid reference NS772759. The house is situated on the site of (former) Cumbernauld Castle, which was besieged by General Monck in 1651. It was built in 1731, to designs by William Adam (1689–1748), for John Fleming, 6th Earl of Wigtown. In the later 20th century the house was used as offices, first by Cumbernauld Development Corporation, then North Lanarkshire Council, and latterly by DH Morris, who went into liquidation in March 2007. The building lay empty for a decade until it was developed into luxury apartments. Cumbernauld House is a category A listed building.
The Secret Bond was a document drawn up by Cardinal Beaton and signed at Linlithgow by a number of Scottish peers and lairds on 24 July 1543. They agreed to prevent the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Prince Edward of England. The document is sometimes called the "Linlithgow Bond". After an agreement was reached with the Governor of Scotland, Regent Arran, Mary moved from Linlithgow Palace to Stirling Castle.
Cumbernauld is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated town in North Lanarkshire, positioned in the centre of Scotland's Central Belt. Geographically, Cumbernauld sits between east and west, being on the Scottish watershed between the Forth and the Clyde; however, it is culturally more weighted towards Glasgow and the New Town's planners aimed to fill 80% of its houses from Scotland's largest city to reduce housing pressure there.
The Luggie Water is one of two streams which flow out of Cumbernauld. The Scottish New Town’s name derives from the Gaelic for "the meeting of the waters", which possibly refers to the Luggie Water and the Red Burn, both of which run through Cumbernauld but which never meet.
John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming, was a Scottish nobleman and a supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The Marian civil war in Scotland (1568–1573) was a period of conflict which followed the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her escape from Lochleven Castle in May 1568. Those who ruled in the name of her infant son James VI fought against the supporters of the Queen, who was exiled in England. Edinburgh Castle, which was garrisoned in her name, became the focus of the conflict and surrendered only after an English intervention in May 1573. The conflict in 1570 was called an "internecine war in the bowels of this commonwealth", and the period was called soon after an "internecine war driven by questions against authority."
The Red Burn is one of two main streams which flow out of Cumbernauld. The Scottish New Town’s name derives from the Gaelic for "the meeting of the waters" and there is broad agreement that one of these waters is the Red Burn.
Blairlinn is the site of one of Cumbernauld's several industrial estates built as satellite developments on the periphery of the Scottish town's residential areas.
Boghall Castle was a 14th-century castle to the south of Biggar, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Boghall became ruinous in the 19th century.
Barbara Hamilton was a Scottish courtier.