A drowning pit, drowning pool, murder-pool or murder hole (not to be confused with defensive murder holes) was a well or pond specifically for executing women and girls (for males the gibbet was used) under Scottish feudal laws. [1] Rivers or lochans were used if conveniently situated near to a moot hill, where the baronial court dempster would announce the death penalty. The term fossa was also used, as in the phrase furca and fossa. [2]
Drowning pits came into legal use after it was enacted, at the parliament assembled in Forfar in 1057 by King Malcolm Canmore, that every baron should sink a well or pit for the drowning of women. The term murder hole sometimes relates to these formal drowning sites. Bones have been found close to some of these sites, suggesting that the corpses were buried close by and not in hallowed ground. [3]
Some drowning pits had ladders down which the condemned person had to climb; the ladder was then withdrawn. At other sites hurdles were used to hold the person below the water. [4] Many moot hill sites are or were surrounded by water or were situated at the edge of a body of water, such as Mugdock, Mound Wood near Auchentiber, the Court Hill at the Hill of Beith, and Hutt Knowe at Bonshaw.
It is not clear why men were more likely to be hanged and women drowned in a fen, river, pit, or murder hole. However, it may relate to ideas of decency or because it was a less violent death. [4]
The binomial expression pit and gallows or –reversing the terms – furca and fossa refers to the high justice rights of a feudal baron, including capital punishment. The right is described in full as pit and gallows, sake and soke, toll and team, and infangthief . [5]
With the introduction of the feudal system to Scotland in the 12th-century, the pre-feudal Celtic tenures were transformed into holdings from the Crown and a number of these were held directly or in chief of the Crown and were held in liberam baroniam ('free barony'), with the aforementioned high justice (with pit and gallows). It is said that King Malcolm Canmore legislated in 1057 that every barony was to have a tree for hanging convicted men and a pit of water for the execution of convicted women. [2]
Although drowning was generally reserved for females, being the least brutal form of death penalty, at times a male was executed in this way as a matter of favour, for instance in 1526 a man convicted of theft and sacrilege was ordered to be drowned "by the queen's special grace", and in 1611 a man was drowned at Edinburgh for stealing a lamb. [4]
The hereditary right of high justice survived until 1747, when it was removed from the barons and from the holders of regalities and sheriffdoms by the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746. The death penalty had largely fallen into disuse by barons well before it was abolished, [1] and its last use in Scotland may have been in 1685, the year of the drowning of the Wigton martyrs. [4]
These pits were often close to the residence of the baron or clan chief, and many gallows sites were close to water. [N 1] A pit or ditch therefore generally did not have to be constructed, making actual drowning pits rare features within the physical landscape. It is not clear what the ratio of male-to-female deaths was in feudal times. Many gallows sites are also associated with the discovery of bones; however records do not clearly state the sex. [3]
Gallows Hill, in the parish of Cruden, was where criminals were executed and where human skeletons have been found. A deep pool in the Water of Cruden opposite is where others were drowned. [6]
There was a drowning pool at Balliemore, Strathspey, south-east of Inverness, where it is said that witches and other women criminals used to be put to death. [7]
Between Mugdock Castle and Craigend is a round knoll, called the moot hill. Guilty women were drowned in the small body of water which lay at the foot of the gibbet where the men were hanged. [8]
In Straiton parish near Craigenrae is a site known as the murder hole, represented by a marshy depression. In the novel The Grey Man written by S. R. Crockett this murder hole is used, however its site is placed elsewhere. [9]
On the Water of Minnoch is a deep pool known as the Murder Hole in which a family from Rowantree dumped their victims; they were caught, confessed and were the last to be hanged on the dule tree. [10]
The author Joseph Train records, however, that at the last shire-mote ever held in Carrick by the Earl of Cassillis, the MacKillups of Craingenreach were hanged on the dule tree of Cassillis circa 1746, having murdered a neighbour and thrown his remains into "the common murder hole of the Bailiery at Craigenreach". [1]
The owner of Baynard's Castle, London, in the reign of John, had powers of trying criminals, and his descendants long afterwards claimed the privileges, the most valued of which was the right of drowning in the River Thames traitors taken within their jurisdiction. Drowning was the punishment ordained by Richard the Lionheart for any soldier of his army who killed a fellow crusader during the passage to the Holy Land. [4]
Mugdock Country Park is a country park and historical site located partly in East Dunbartonshire and partly in Stirling, in the former county of Stirlingshire, Scotland. It is around 10 miles north of Glasgow, next to Milngavie, and covers an area of 260 hectares.
The old Barony and castle of Corsehill lay within the feudal Baillerie of Cunninghame, near Stewarton, now East Ayrshire, Scotland.
A barony is an administrative division of a county in Scotland, Ireland, outlying parts of England and historically France and Sardinia. As a barony is associated to a Baron and a county to a Count or Earl, it has a lower rank and importance than a county.
Dule trees, or dool trees, in Britain were used as gallows for public hangings. They were also used as gibbets for the display of the corpse for a considerable period after such hangings. These "trees of lamentation or grief" were usually growing in prominent positions or at busy thoroughfares, particularly at crossroads, so that justice could be seen to have been done and as a salutary warning to others. Place names such as Gallows-Hill, Gallows-See, Gallows-Fey and Hill of the Gallows record the site of such places of execution.
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.
A moot hill or mons placiti is a hill or mound historically used as an assembly or meeting place, as a moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, also traditionally to decide local issues. In early medieval Britain, such hills were used for "moots", meetings of local people to settle local business. Among other things, proclamations might be read; decisions might be taken; court cases might be settled at a moot. Although some moot hills were naturally occurring features or had been created long before as burial mounds, others were purpose-built.
The Barony of Bonshaw, previously known as Bollingshaw, was in the old feudal Baillerie of Cunninghame, near Stewarton in what is now North Ayrshire, Scotland.
Polnoon Castle was a 14th-century fortification located on a motte beside the Polnoon Water in Millhall, in the Parish of Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire, Scotland.
The old Barony and castle, fortalice, or tower house of Hill of Beith lay in the feudal Regality of Kilwinning, within the Baillerie of Cunninghame, and the Sherrifdom of Ayr, now the Parish of Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
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.
Trabboch Castle is a ruined L-plan tower house in the old Barony of Trabboch, Parish of Stair, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Loch Fergus is a freshwater post-glacial "Kettle Hole" sometimes recorded as Fergus Loch. It is quite visible and is situated in a low-lying area close to the B742 road between the farms and dwellings of Trees, Lochfergus and Bowmanston in the Parish of Ayr, South Ayrshire, Scotland. The loch lies to the north of Martnaham Loch, four miles east-southeast of Ayr. It drains to the southwest into the Snipe Loch.
Polkelly Castle, also Pokelly, was an ancient castle located near Fenwick, at NS 4568 4524, in the medieval free Barony of Polkelly, lying north of Kilmarnock, Parish of Fenwick, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The castle is recorded as Powkelly (c1747), Pockelly (c1775), Pow-Kaillie, Ponekell, Polnekel, Pollockelly, Pollockellie, Pokellie, Pothelly, Pathelly Ha' and Polkelly. The name is given circa 1564 as Powkellie when it was held by the Cunninghams of Cunninghamhead.
Martnaham Loch is a freshwater loch lying across the border between East and South Ayrshire Council Areas, two kilometres from Coylton, in the parishes of Coylton and Dalrymple, three miles from Ayr. The loch lies along an axis from northeast to southwest. The remains of a castle lie on a possibly artificial islet within the loch. The Campbells of Loudoun once held the lands, followed by the Kennedys of Cassillis.
Greenhills is a small village or hamlet in North Ayrshire, Parish of Beith, Scotland. It lies between the settlements of Barrmill and the hamlet of Burnhouse on a crossroads of the B706 and the lanes to Nettlehirst and Tandlehill via the Third part. It is named after the 'Green Hill' an artificial mound, a Moot, Law or Justice hill that once stood here. The settlement lay within the old Barony of Giffen; the castle no longer exists. The village lies within Barrmill and District Community Association's area and is also covered by Beith Community Council.
Montgomerieston, sometimes known as Montgomeryston or Ayr Fort, was a small burgh of regality and barony of only 16 acres or 6.5 hectares located within the walls of the old Ayr Citadel, also known as Cromwell's Fort or Oliver's Fort, situated in the town of Ayr, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Montgomerieston was named for the Montgomerie family, Earls of Eglinton.
The Castle Knowe (NS20365081), is a prominent mound located slightly to the west of North Kilruskin Farm on the Kilruskin Toll Road, West Kilbride, North Ayrshire. Scotland. The mound may have served several different functions over the ages.
The Castle Hill is a prominent wooded mound located slightly to the west of Damhead House on the Caprington Estate, Riccarton, East Ayrshire. Scotland. The mound may have served several different functions over the ages such as fortification, moot hill, estate landscape feature, etc.
The Castle and Barony of Gadgirth was held by the Chalmer family, originally De Camera, with successive castles and a mansion house overlooking the River Ayr at the border of the Parish of Coylton, the old district of Kyle, now part of South Ayrshire, Scotland.
Lawthorn is a hamlet near Perceton in Strathannick, Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The settlement lies on the old Irvine to Stewarton toll road.
