Archaeology Notes

Event ID 713034

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/713034

NT19NE 1 17532 95883

(NT 1753 9588) Lochore Castle (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map, (1920).

Lochore Castle is situated on a mound at the east end of what was formerly a sheet of water, Loch Ore or 'Inchgall Loch' drained at the end of the 18th century.

Present appearances suggest that the original castle had been of the motte-and-bailey type and that the motte-hill was reduced in height before the present tower of stone was built. The base of the mound has been enclosed by a barmkin of coursed rubble, now fragmentary and nowhere more than 10ft in height but still traceable all round. At the north-eastern, north western and south-eastern angles there have been small rounded towers, which seem to have been added in the 16th century and are now almost demolished. The entrance to the barmkin enclosure was on the/ the north-west through an arched doorway. The tower probably dates from the 14th century. To the north and west of the tower lie the foundations of later outbuildings.

RCAHMS 1933.

Lochore Castle was apparently approached from the east along a causeway which is reported to have been in existence some years ago.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1899.

Sir Duncan de lochore in the time of Malcolm IV (1153-65) was the builder of a baronial castle at Lochore.

It is quite certain that the present ruin was no part of it.

A H Millar 1895.

Lochore Castle is in ruinous condition: the description in RCAHMS 1933 is correct. The tower and barmkin are situated on a mound possibly the remains of a motte. The raised enclosure W of the tower, suggested as a possible bailey by RCAHMS would appear to be comparatively recent: small quarries reveal that it is apparently composed of ash, cinder, etc.

Visited by OS (AC) 13 March 1959.

'Adam de Vallance who was descended from an Anglo-Norman family married the elder daughter and heiress of Sir David Lochore, some time prior to 1296 and may have lived for a short time in Lochore Castle which by then was becoming obsolete (at site of Chapel Farm (NT19NE 4 and NT19NE 5 ). He built a tower-house on the island of Inchgall shortly afterwards which was occupied about the year 1308 when it became known as the Castle of Inchgall.

Charter references to Inchgall Castle are noted in 1384, 1393, 1407, c.1410 and 1547 when during the Herifords invasion of Scotland, Inchgall Castle heads a list of " the four strongest Castles in Fife".

The Malcolm family came into possession of the barony of Inchgall in 1656 and set about changing the names of several long established features to that of 'Lochore', all contrary to charter evidence'.

Information contained in a letter from Mr E Henderson, Dunfermline to the OS, 21 March 1997, subsequently passed to RCAHMS, April 1997