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Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017407
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017407
The ruins of Castle Kennedy have been a sad monument to fire-damage ever since a fateful night in late October or early November 1716. A fIre, lit to air the drawing room and supposedly put out by the maid before she went to bed, broke out again in the night, consuming almost everything except the occupants, three pictures, and the masonry we still see. Much attention was later lavished on the gardens (no. 26), but the shell of this burnt-out pile was left relatively undisturbed and unrestored.
The nucleus of the castle dates from the early 17th century when the Inch estate belonged to the Kennedy family, Earls of Cassillis, hence the name; building work was in progress in 1607. Temporarily in the possession of the Hamiltons ofBargany, Inch and other Wigtownshire properties were in 1677 acquired by the Dalrymples of Stair, another family of Ayrshire origin who came to acquire considerable political and military distinction. The house that they inherited comprised a five-storeyed central block with flanking turrets and towers, laid out symmetrically except for an off-centre entrance in the east wall. This led into a passage on the ground floor (formerly vaulted), and the main stair rose within an adjacent turret in the south re-entrant angle. The Dalrymples themselves added two-storeyed ranges to the north and west, probably in the early 18th century, and surviving inventories give a room-by-room list of the furnishings in 1698 and 1702, a poignant record of all that was lost in 1716.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
