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Publication Account
Date 1978
Event ID 1017898
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017898
The first mention of a castle of Kirkcudbright was in 1290 when John Baliol was noted to be the custos of that castle (ER, i, 39). This castle was probably the structure erected on Castledykes, one quarter of a mile to the southwest of the burgh on the left bank of the River Dee. The earthwork is massive, measuring 200 feet (6lm) by 100 feet (30. 5m) within a ditch which averages fifty feet (17m) in width and nine feet (2.74m) in depth (RCAHM, 1914, 143-4). Excavations carried out on the site in 1911, 1912 and 1913 revealed a south, east and north tower, as well as a gate-house entrance, and a west curtain wall (Robison, 1926, 74). Pottery from Gascony was uncovered (Dunning et al . , 1957-8, 120 as well as the remains of a midden, a bone comb and horseshoe (Robison, 1926, 74). The castle of Kirkcudbright was included in a grant of the lordship of Galloway to Edward Bruce, brother of the king, in the early fourteenth century, but virtually nothing was heard of the castle after that date (Robison, 1926, 62).
Information from ‘Historic Kirkcudbright: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1978).
