Cardoness Castle (HS)

Ancient home of the McCullochs, the 15th century six storey tower house stands on a rocky platform above the Water of Fleet. The castle was built at a time when gun powdered artillery was beginning to rival stone throwing machines, cross bows and long bows. It is one of the earliest castles in Scotland to have built in gun-holes as opposed to arrow-slits. The McCullochs were a powerful Galloway family. From Cardoness in the 1530s they raided the Isle of Man on numerous occasions giving rise to the Man proverb: ‘God keep the good corn, the sheep and the bullock, From Satan, from sin and from Cutlar McCullock’. The McCullochs were constantly feuding with their neighbours, particularly the Gordons. In about 1668 Godfrey McCulloch shot and fatally wounded the head of the Gordon family. Sentenced to death, Godfrey escaped abroad for several years. Soon after his return, he was spotted, ironically attending a church service in St Giles in Edinburgh. Recaptured, he was executed in the capital, one of the last to perish on ‘The Maiden’- the Scottish equivalent of the Guillotine. Shop.