Hessilhead Loch

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Hessilhead Loch
Hessilhead curling ponds.JPG
The site of Hessilhead Loch from the old castle site
North Ayrshire UK relief location map.jpg
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Hessilhead Loch
Location Hessilhead, North Ayrshire, Scotland
Coordinates Coordinates: 55°44′48.5″N4°34′53.7″W / 55.746806°N 4.581583°W / 55.746806; -4.581583
Type Drained freshwater loch
Primary inflows Rainfall and runoff
Primary outflows Dusk Water
Basin  countriesScotland
Islands None
Settlements Beith

Hessilhead Loch or Hazelhead Loch [1] was situated in a low-lying area near the old Castle of Hessilhead in the Parish of Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The old loch, used in the defence of the castle, was probably infilled when the castle ruins were landscaped in the 19th century. [2]

Contents

History

Defensive use

The castle ruins in the 19th century. Hessilheadcastle1876.jpg
The castle ruins in the 19th century.

In 1956 the Royal Commission recorded that Hessilhead Castle has been demolished. Extensive quarrying around the site has removed any possible traces of a moat. No building vestiges remain. The drainage from the quarry does use what was once a moat [3] Timothy Pont in around 1604 records that the castle was protected by substantial ditches and stood on a loch. [4] This loch has long since been drained and the ditches filled in. Dobie sees the loch and ditches as the only defensive features of the site. [5] [6]

The Kilmarnock Standard in 1949 wrote an article Ancient Ayrshire Castles in which it was stated that the castle stood in the middle of a loch with ditches, presumably meaning a moat. [1]

Drainage

The loch's drainage may have begun in the early 18th century when Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton, was pursuing a number of agricultural improvements on his extensive estates and other landowners followed his example. Further drainage work may have taken place in the 1740s as part of the improvements undertaken to provide employment for Montgomerie Irish estate workers during the Irish potato famines of the 1740s and the mid 19th centuries. [7]

Curling Pond

The OS map of 1911-12 shows that a curling pond was excavated on part of the old loch site. This pond was abandoned by 1958 as it is no longer shown.

Cartographic evidence

Blaeu's map of 1654, dating from Timothy Pont's survey of circa 1604, clearly shows the loch and indicates that it and the outflow nearly surrounded the castle site. [8] Roy's map of 1747 shows the loch present, situated on the edge of an inflow burn. [9] Armstrong's map of 1775 and Thomson's map of 1832 do not record a loch. [10]

The 19th century Ordnance Survey maps show the site as an area free of trees and later (1911–12) as the site of a curling pond. [11] In 2011 the drainage here remains inadequate and the area is dominated by marsh plants. [12]

Scotland relief location map.jpg
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Hessilhead Loch
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Previous location of Hessilhead Loch, North Ayrshire

Related Research Articles

Hessilhead

Hessilhead is in Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland. Hessilhead used to be called Hazlehead or Hasslehead. The lands were part of the Lordship of Giffen, and the Barony of Hessilhead, within the Baillerie of Cunninghame and the Parish of Beith. The castle was situated at grid reference NS380532.

Barony and Castle of Giffen Barony in the former District of Cunninghame, now North Ayrshire

The Barony of Giffen and its associated 15th-century castle were in the parish of Beith in the former District of Cunninghame, now North Ayrshire. The site may be spelled Giffen or Giffin and lay within the Lordship of Giffin, which included the Baronies of Giffen, Trearne, Hessilhead, Broadstone, Roughwood and Ramshead; valued at £3,788 9s 10d. The Barony of Giffen comprised a number of properties, including Greenhills, Thirdpart, Drumbuie, Nettlehirst and Balgray, covering about half of the parish of Beith. Giffen was a hundred merk land, separated from the Barony of Beith, a forty-pound land, by the Powgree Burn which rises on Cuff hill. The Lugton Water or the Bungle Burn running through Burnhouse may have been the Giffen barony boundary with that of the adjacent barony and lands of Aiket castle.

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Halket Loch' also known as Halkhead or Halketh, was situated in the mid-Ayrshire clayland near Lugton. It is visible as a surface depression in pastureland, sometimes partially flooded, situated in a low-lying area close to farms and dwellings of East, North and Middle Halket and Craighead in the Parish of Dunlop, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The loch was natural, sitting in a hollow created by glaciation. The loch waters drained via the Glazert Water that joins the Annick Water.

Littlestane Loch Former lake in Irvine, Scotland

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Fail Loch

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Knockewart Loch

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References

Notes
  1. 1 2 Kilmarnock Standard
  2. ↑ Love, Page 89
  3. ↑ The RCAHMS Canmoresite. Retrieved : 2011-02-17
  4. ↑ Love (2005), Page 14
  5. ↑ Dobie, Page 194.
  6. ↑ McGibbon, Page 376
  7. ↑ MacIntosh, Pages 37 & 39
  8. ↑ Blaeu's Map Retrieved : 2011-02-17
  9. ↑ Roy's Map Retrieved : 2011-02-17
  10. ↑ Thomson's Map Retrieved : 2011-02-17
  11. ↑ NLS Maps Archived 2011-04-11 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved : 2011-02-17
  12. ↑ Google Maps Retrieved : 2011-02-17
Sources
  1. Dobie, James D. (ed Dobie, J.S.) (1876). Cunninghame, Topographized by Timothy Pont 1604–1608, with continuations and illustrative notices. Glasgow : John Tweed.
  2. Kilmarnock Standard, August 13, 1949.
  3. Love, Dane (2003). Ayrshire : Discovering a County. Ayr : Fort Publishing. ISBN   0-9544461-1-9.
  4. Love, Dane (2005). Lost Ayrshire : Ayrshire's Lost Architectural Heritage. Edinburgh : Birlinn Ltd. ISBN   1-84158-356-1.
  5. MacGibbon and Ross, D and T (1887–92). The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Centuries, 5 V, Edinburgh, Vol. III.
  6. MacIntosh, Donald (2006). Travels in Galloway. Glasgow : Neil Wilson. ISBN   1-897784-92-9.
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