There are castles, the perfection of which from the point of view of their defensive functions immediately strikes the eye, and the Scottish castle of Kerlaverrock (translated from English - "Lark's Nest") is one of them. It is located in Dumfrey and Galloway in the southwestern part of Scotland. Unfortunately, it is not very convenient for tourists to get to it, you have to travel for two hours by train from Glasgow to Dumfrey, and then travel by bus. From Edinburgh, you can also get there in three hours. And from Newcastle to Dumfrey the train journey will take the same two hours, and from Karlis it will take about an hour. But you also need to get there … The bus number (unless it was changed, but why would it be?) From Dumfrey is D6A.
Aerial view of the castle. Isn't it a ready-made illustration for a textbook on ancient fortification?
And this is its layout, as it was during the Anglo-Scottish wars.
A tourist sign at the site of the very first fortification and its supposed appearance.
Why is it interesting? Well, let's just say - this is one of the castles that provide its inhabitants with the highest level of protection, and all its other functions are of a secondary nature. True, at first it was built of wood and not at this place at all, but 200 m south of the present place. It was known about it already in 1229, but then for some reason they left it, and a new one was built in 1279. The owner of the castle was Herbert Maxwell, one of the most influential clanmen in Scotland.
In the era of Romanticism, it was customary for artists to travel here and depict its ruins.
Then they began to sell photographic postcards with a view of this castle.
When King Edward I Plantagenet of England conquered Scotland in 1296, many Scots were forced to swear allegiance to him. Among them were Herbert Maxwell and his son John. However, the Scots soon rebelled again. And when Edward invaded Galloway again in 1300, his wrath fell upon Curlaverock Castle.
General plan of the castle.
The plan of its first floor.
Edward I's army had 87 knights and 3,000 commoner warriors. They did not lay siege to the castle for long and soon Lord Maxwell, together with a garrison of 60 people, surrendered. The British owned the castle until 1312, and its keeper was then a relative of Herbert Maxwell, a certain Sir Eustace Maxwell, who had just a remarkable talent for being a servant of two masters. So, in the same year 1312, he managed to swear allegiance to the King of Scotland, Robert the Bruce.
Here it is - a double tower with a gate to the castle. Modern look.
Aerial view of the castle, entrance and gate tower.
Curlaverok in the rays of the setting sun.
When Bruce died, in 1329 his son David II received the crown, but due to his childhood he could not be the ruler, and in Scotland again a strife over power began. Sir Eustace supported in this struggle Edward Balliol, who belonged to the party that wanted to remove the Bruce family from the throne. And not only supported, but in 1332 strengthened the Kerlaverok castle and handed it over to Balliol as a "reference point". However, Balliol could not hold out for a long time against the forces that supported the legitimate king, and already in 1340 Sir Eustace Maxwell became a completely loyal and noticeable figure among those close to … David II. Yes, yes, then it was so, and it was nobility, not loyalty, that played an important role in the fate of people. "My God and my right" was written in the coat of arms of the British kings, and what, in fact, was it worse than them? I decided - supported one, then changed my mind - supported the other. Well, and then it was generally not customary to kill noble captives, because they owned the land and, having interrupted someone's clan, the king had to give the vacated land to someone and thereby … strengthen, perhaps, the future of his opponent!
View of the castle from the most destroyed part of it.
The dwelling, built in the castle in 1634, is somewhat discordant with its general appearance, but nothing can be done about it.
And the date of construction - here it is, embossed above the window!
This is the coat of arms of the owners - very simple, and therefore very ancient.
Then, in the 15th century, it was rebuilt by Lord Herbert Maxwell, 1st Lord Maxwell, and then by his son Robert, 2nd Lord Maxwell, and in the 16th century the castle is again mentioned in the description of the conflict between England and Scotland. Moreover, it is known that on the eve of the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542, where the Scots were utterly defeated by the British, King James V visited him. The 5th Lord Maxwell was captured by the British in this battle. Then they freed him, but in 1544 they took him prisoner again and, moreover, again captured his Kerlaverok castle.
One of the corner towers is completely destroyed.
A year later, the Scots recaptured the castle. In 1593, Robert, the 8th Lord Maxwell, lived there and with him this castle was "well fortified and many people worked inside it." Then, when the Scottish king James VI ascended the now English throne in 1603, the long-awaited peace finally reigned on the border between England and Scotland. However, the revolts, bloodshed and betrayals in the history of Scotland and the Curlaverok castle itself did not diminish. He had some strange masters - they looked after their interests so much that they allowed themselves to quarrel with the kings, including Henry VIII, neighboring clans, and for the most part they always got away with it. Intricate kinship, litigation and a real stabbing - all this took place in the families of the owners of the Kerlaverrock castle and it is a great pity that Walter Scott did not describe his story in one of his novels. In 1634, the then owner built a comfortable residential building in the castle, which did not fit into its original scheme at all, but that was already the New Time, when the main measure of the castle's convenience was its suitability, first of all, for life, and not for war.
But the other has survived very well. Stone mashikuli are visible on it, so it was best not to approach the enemy soldiers to its base.
Be that as it may, but already at the end of the 18th century, the castle became a popular object of the then tourism and remained so for three centuries, and in 1946 it was transferred to the state under protection and is now taken care of by the solid government organization Historical Scotland.
This very tower is on the other side.
The moat, as you can see, around the castle is wide, and its depth was decent.
However, even today, as you can see, it is being cleaned so that it does not overgrow it very much.
Well, now let's wander around this castle a little, look at it from the outside and enjoy the atmosphere of the warlike Scottish Middle Ages, which is literally everywhere here. The castle, as already mentioned, is triangular, and is surrounded by water on all sides. The main apex of the triangle is the entrance where the double gate tower is located. And, of course, here a drawbridge led to the gate, as soon as it was lifted, the castle ended up on the island. However, even if the enemies somehow broke through the gate, they would find themselves under crossfire from both parts of this double tower. On the other two vertices of the triangle, powerful towers were also erected. And, accordingly, wherever the enemy tried to get to the walls, he immediately fell under the sight of archers and crossbowmen from both towers, not to mention the wall itself.
Not far from the castle stands this replica of a medieval trebuchet.
There is no donjon in the castle, but, firstly, it was clear that it would be very difficult for enemies to penetrate its walls, so why then do we need a donjon, and secondly, if they did succeed, then its inhabitants could hide in either of the two corner towers - it was absolutely impossible to capture both of them at the same time!
And of course, Kerlaverok Castle is a great place for medieval reenactors!
And what kind of knights you will not see here …
