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Publication Account
Date 1978
Event ID 1018034
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018034
Although its exact location is unclear a royal castle at Montrose dates to at least the reign of William the Lion. That monarch issued twenty charters from Montrose and at one point during his reign granted land to a man called Crane 'for the service of being a porter in the royal castle of Montrose' (Barrow, 1971, 476). One local historian believed that the early castle of Montrose was on Maryton Law adjoining the lands of Old Monros or further east (Low, 1930, 4). Other local worthies have cited Forthill as a possible early castle site. Forthill, a hillock, was located at the fort of Bridge Street and was largely destroyed in the early nineteenth century. Investigators from Ordnance Survey reported that 'local people do not like the assertion that this was the site of the castle as it was outside the royalty of Montrose until 1826' (Ordnance Survey, Record Cards, Reference No. 75 NW 3). The castle was reputedly destroyed during the Wars of Independence (Fraser, 1974, 81). The newly-created Duke of Montrose in the second half of the fifteenth century was granted the site of the Castle of Montrose, 'commonly called the Castlested' (Fraser, 1974, 81). The Duke of Montrose never constructed a castle on that site; however, workmen in 1950 found ancient brick foundations set upon slabs of stone which continued under the building at No. 5, Castle Place and gave the indication that they formed a single building. In one part was a circle of stone slabs not unlike a large boiler or the base of a small tower (Fraser, 1974, 82). It is believed that these foundations were those of a town house ac.quired by the Earls of Montrose in the sixteenth century (Fraser, 1957, 26).
A fort for defence against the English was hastily constructed in the late 1540s at Forthill. A French soldier described the fort as small with little space for storing provisions or keeping men. The fort furthermore was built on moving sands and was constructed solely of turf (Brown, 1891, 67). The Royal Infirmary now occupies the site (Fraser, 1974, 69).
Information from ‘Historic Montrose: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1978).
