Trabboch Castle (NS 458 221) is a ruined L-plan tower house in the old Barony of

Trabboch Trabboch is a hamlet in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Built as a miners village in the 1880s, it was owned and leased by Wm. Baird & Co., Ltd. and at one time had 94 dwellings. The miners rows stood, until demolition in 1969, on the Stair and Littlemill ...

, Parish of

Stair Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical direction, vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps w ...

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire ( sco, Aest Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquart ...

, Scotland.

History

The Barony and lairds

The lands of Trabboch (pronounced 'Traaboch') are first recorded by name in a rental of 1303-4. King

Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventual ...

gave the 'L-plan' castle to the Boyds of Kilmarnock for services rendered at the

Battle of Bannockburn The Battle of Bannockburn ( gd, Blàr Allt nam Bànag or ) fought on June 23–24, 1314, was a victory of the army of King of Scots Robert the Bruce over the army of King Edward II of England in the First War of Scottish Independence. It was ...

in 1314, as revealed in an undated charter in the Register of the Great Seal, stating that King Robert I granted the 'lands of Trebach' in Kyle-Regis to Robert Boyd. Following the fall from favour of the Boyds in 1469 Paterson records that the ''fortalice of Trabach'' was forfeited to the crown, reportedly for the use of the eldest sons of the Kings of Scotland. The RCAHMS state By 1451 the lands had passed into the hands of William, Earl of Douglas and later to the Boswells of Auchinleck. In the 17th century Chalmers of Gadgirth and Reid of Barskimming held parts of the Barony of Trabboch. Love states that the Arthurs, Lord Ochiltree, and the Campbells of Loudoun also held Trabboch Castle. As the caput of the Barony of Trabboch a

moot hill A moot hill or ''mons placiti'' (statute hill) 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 h ...

would have existed and although no remains survive the nearby farm of Lawhill is suggestive of the location.Smith, page 143 The associated Mill of Trabboch stood on the Water of Coyle and was not powered by the loch waters. Campbell sees Trabboch Castle as the only survivor of a defensive chain of castles that once ran across Kyle Regis and included Stair, Auchencloigh, Drongan, and Drumsuie.Campbell, Page 252

The remnants and the castle

The remains of Trabboch Castle in 1954 consisted of an L-shaped portion of walling, with no windows or doors apparent, possibly sitting on a motte. The walls are 2.5m thick, with a height around 3.0m, constructed of massive rubble masonry, 9.0m long on the north-western section and 12.5m long on the south-western section. No window or door openings are visible. A broad natural ditch is visible on the western side and the shallow curvilinear ditch on the south side may have been part of the castle defences. Some finds were held by the proprietor of Trabboch Farm. Much of the castle stone was used to build the nearby Trabboch Mains Farm. The castle ruins are now protected as a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. A grave was found nearby (NS 458 221), placed beneath a cairn and cut out of the solid red sandstone, covered by a flagstone and containing some beads and blackish dust. File:Trabboch Castle and earthworks.jpg, Trabboch Castle site and earthworks File:Trabboch Castle ruin from the west.jpg, The castle ruins from the west File:Trabboch Castle ruins - detail.jpg, Details of the castle walls File:Trabboch Castle - south facing wall.jpg, A south facing wall File:Trabboch castle ruins from the east.jpg, Castle ruins from the east File:Trabboch Castle from the south-west.jpg, The view of the castle from the south-west James Boswell of Auchinleck is recorded to have said that ''"I wish that my father would buy Trabboch mains, a beautiful farm now offered for sale by Sir John Whitefoord, as it was the very manor-place of the barony of Trabboch, and still has the vestigia of the old house still to be seen."''

Cartographic evidence

Gordon's map of 1636-52 shows Trabboch castle. Roy's map of 1747 marks both Trabog (Sic) and Lawhill Molls map of 1745 marks the castle. John Thomson's 1828 map marks Traboch Castle (Sic) clearly.

Loch of Trabboch

The ancient Loch of Trabboch was a site where swans, moor hens,Trabboch memories
Retrieved : 2011-04-17 and other waterfowl nested and as a site within the old Barony of Trabboch it was an area used for hunting and fishing by the laird. Trabboch Loch is a 19th-century site formed from the flooding of Drumdow pit.

References

;Notes

; Sources # Adamson, Archibald R. (1879). ''Rambles through the Land of Burns''. Kilmarnock : Dunlop & Drennan. # Barber, Derek (2000). ''Steps through Stair''. Stair Parish Church. # Campbell, Thorbjørn (2003). ''Ayrshire. A Historical Guide''. Edinburgh : Birlinn. # Coventry, Martin (2010). ''Castles of the Clans''. Musselburgh : Goblinshead. # Davis, Michael C. (1991). ''The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire.'' Ardrishaig : Spindrift Press # # Love, Dane (2003). ''Ayrshire : Discovering a County''. Ayr : Fort Publishing. . # Paterson, James (1863–66). ''History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton''. V. 2 - Part 2 - Kyle. Edinburgh: J. Stillie. # Smith, John (1895). ''Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire''. London : Elliot Stock.

External links

Video footage of Trabboch Castle

Clan boyd and Trabboch Castle
{{Castles in East Ayrshire Lochs of East Ayrshire History of East Ayrshire Castles in East Ayrshire Scheduled Ancient Monuments in East Ayrshire Tower houses in Scotland