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Publication Account

Date 1985

Event ID 1016573

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016573

Crookston Castle is situated on the top of a hogbacked knoll which offers a magnificent prospect over the Clyde to the higher ground beyond, and it is protected on the north by a steep drop down to the Leven Water. The defences belong to two main periods, a ringwork of 12th century date and a later medieval tower-house of unusual design.

The castle takes its name from Sir Robert Croc of Neilston who held the lands of the manor in the latter part of the 12th century, and it is to this period that the earthwork defences probably belong. Although the site has in the past been described as the remains of a matte and bailey castle, excavation has shown that there is no evidence for the existence of a motte, and the earlier medieval defences are best described as a ringwork. The enclosed area is roughly oval on plan, measunng 80m by 45m within a broad ditch accompanied by a counterscarp bank. There is little sign of an inner rampart or stone wall, and a timber palisade probably provided sufficient defence. The single entrance lay on the west, under the modern track, and the interior buildings, like the palisade, are likely to have been entirely of timber.

The tower-house, which is of early 15th century date, is of unusual plan and finds few parallels elsewhere in Scotland. Before deliberate partial demolition in the late 15th century, it consisted of a central rectangular block with four projecting angle-towers. Only the north-east and south-east towers now survive, giving the castle an unbalanced and ungainly appearance, although originally it must have been a handsome, if not formidable looking building. The principal accommodation lay in the central block, with the ground floor occupied by a barrel-vaulted cellar, a large hall on the first floor and a solar above the hall; the angle-towers contained smaller apartments and the service rooms. The design of the castle and the masonry are of a high order and some of the work has been likened to that at Borthwick Castle, Midlothian.

The castle was besieged in 1489 and the renowned cannon known as Mons Meg (now preserved in Edinburgh Castle) was dragged from Edinburgh to take part in the assault. Following the capture and slighting of the castle, it was re-occupied and partially restored, but before the end of the 16th century it seems to have been deserted.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).

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