Hoddom Castle: Old Stones and Stories in Dumfries & Galloway…

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Just try to imagine what it can be to get asleep and wake up in the shade of an old castle, to be immersed in the silent atmosphere of such a place when the only sounds around are the murmur of the wind and the jackdaws’ cries. It’s a unique experience which makes you feel deeply the magic of the place. It changes your perspectives. It makes you feel different and it will remain impressed in your imaginary forever.

Now, as I’m trying to recollect the memories of our travels in Scotland, in order to give you the best idea I can of that marvellous country with which we’ve fallen in love a few years ago, it’s that kind of memories that come back to my mind: a unique moment, a specific light and atmosphere in the midst of the wilderness, in the crowd of a busy city street or in one of those  enchanted gardens which make you feel you’ve landed in the Garden of Eden…

One day, I remember, we were lingering in the vast and magnificent park of Kennedy Castle and the magic of the place was such that we had lost all sense of time and finally got locked up in the park after closing time ;-)…

After a busy travel day, as I’ve mentioned in my last post, we pitched our tent (on the above photo, it’s the first on the right of the entrance) on the vast and thick carpet of grass which stretches in front of the castle. There were not many campers then and, as night was falling and the daily noises became muffled, we immediately got immersed in the atmosphere of the place.

Two or three couples of jackdaws (expressively known as  ‘choucas des tours’ and  ‘corneille des clochers’ in French) were pecking at the crumbs of our frugal supper, as they would do in the morning with those of our breakfast, and we quietly enjoyed the sight before slipping into our sleeping bags for a good resting night in the open air …

Certain places, said Stevenson, cry out for a story,

and Scott, in any new surroundings, straightway invented an appropriate tale,

if there were not already a story or tradition in existence.

One might even believe that the place itself tells its own tale to the sympathetic imagination.

(Border Ghost Stories Howard Pease 1919)

When we discovered Hoddom Castle, surrounded by its big rhododendrons and majestic trees, it was late and the setting sun was reaching the tower as if to focus on the oldest and most interesting part of the castle which dates back to the 16th century. The entrance arch was inviting us to enter and so we did to get a closer view of the castle with its many architectural details, turrets, crenellated battlements, mullioned windows, which are typical of the Scottish baronial house style, an architectural style which  flourished in Scotland in the 19 th century and beginning of the 20th century.

Hoddom Castle, aka Hoddam Castle and previously called ‘Hoddam Stanes’ because it was built with the stones of the old Hoddom Castle, dates back to the 1550s and began as a tower-house. The original castle has undergone a number of changes over the centuries though many of the architectural additions were demolished between 1953-75. Hoddom Castle was built c. 1568  by Sir John Maxwell, 4th Lord Herries, as his main residential stronghold on the West March*, on the site of a chapel (which he had demolished).

The tower-house with its height of over 21.3m high and walls which were 2.7m thick at the base is a big structure for its date, and I’ve read it was attacked three times by the English during the early years of its existence. I’ve found interesting information about the tower house and the Scottish baronial style on Wikipedia.

The article about the Scottish baronial is illustrated with a drawing of one of the most famous Scottish baronial castles (we still did not visit this one) :  the royal residence of Balmoral. Below is an extract of the article with its illustration.

Balmoral Castle – Wikipedia – Source Project Gutenberg eText 13103: ”Great Britain and Her Queen”, by Anne E. Keeling

The Scots Baronial style is part of the Gothic Revival architecture style, using stylistic elements and forms from castles, tower houses and mansions of the Gothic architecture period in Scotland, such as Craigievar Castle and Newark Castle, Port Glasgow. The revival style was popular from the early 19th century until World War I. Buildings of the style frequently feature towers adorned by small turrets. Roof lines are uneven, their crenelated battlements often broken by stepped gables. While small lancet windows may be in towers and gables, large bay windows of plate glass were not uncommon, but even these often had their individual roofs adorned by pinnacles and crenelation. Porches, porticos and porte-cocheres, were often given the castle treatment, an imitation portcullis on the larger houses would occasionally be suspended above a front door, flanked by heraldic beasts and other medieval architectural motifs. This architectural style was often employed for public buildings, such as Aberdeen Grammar School.

However, it was by no means confined to Scotland and is, in truth, a fusion of the Gothic revival castle architecture first employed by Horace Walpole for his Twickenham villa, Strawberry Hill, and the ancient Scottish defensive tower houses. During the 19th century it became fashionable for private houses to be built with small turrets and dubbed in Scottish Baronial style. In fact the architecture often had little in common with tower houses, which retained their defensive functions and were deficient with respect to 19th century ideas of comfort. The 20th-century Scottish Baronial castles have had the reputation of architectural follies. Among most patrons and architects the style became disfavoured along with the Gothic revival style during the early years of the 20th century.  The Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or Neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement which began in the 1740s in England.

I’ ve learned that in 1935, and before falling into a ruinous state, Hoddom castle had become a youth hostel. We keep unforgettable memories of the nights, suppers and breakfasts we’ve shared with other people in the Scottish Youth Hostels which, as their name doesn’t indicate, welcome visitors of all age ;-).

We’ve even slept one night in a castle, a haunted one, but we didn’t stay long enough to be introduced to the ghost 😉  We’ll soon devote a special page to the Scottish Youth Hostels and also to the ghosts 😉 on Scotiana. How we would have liked to spend a night in one of the rooms of Hoddom Castle !

Hoddom Castle Youth Hostel

Another huge hostel started up at Hoddom Castle, near Dumfries, in 1937. This was offered for a peppercorn rent by Captain Brook, who showed great generosity in preparing the battered old central keep for use by SYHA. There were 60 beds at first, though it was claimed that the capacity would soon be quadrupled. Like other properties, it was lost to the Association at the beginning of the war. Nowadays it is a glorious and vast ruin, the centrepiece of a caravan holiday park. Hoddom created a further link between Winshields and the Carlisle area of YHA.

It is interesting to note that Hoddom Castle was requisitioned by the military during the Second World War and that it was not reoccupied afterwards. The tower house being derelict, it has been included on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland and on  the Historic Scotland’s Castle Conservation Register which aims to identify buildings which could be successfully restored.

Hoddom castle is unveiling its secrets one after the other but let us try to find people who know perfectly its history. Commander H.E. Spragge, R.N. is one of them. At Hoddom Castle, we found his very interesting  little book entitled  Hoddom Castle and the Western Gateway into Scotland . This book also contains a few  black and white photographies of Hoddom Castle and many other places in the neighbourhood which we’ve already visited or intend to visit during our next trip there (Repentance Tower, Hoddom Bridge, Church and  Crosses, the ruins of the old Castle). Below is an extract of this book :

Hoddom Castle is an example of the many pele towers that were a feature of the Borders. These towers must be regarded as private residences that could be defended in an emergency, and not confused with the great castles that were designed as fortresses to withstand armies. Church towers were sometimes fortified with the same defensive object and the Pele Tower,  Annan, was an example of this. The pele tower was a development of the motte and bailey introduced by the Normans. The motte was a sttep sided mound surmounted by a wooden tower and surrounded by a ditch and palisade.’ The castle is not in the parish of Hoddam, the boundary of which is the River Annan, but in Trailtrow. A much older castle stood on the site of Hallguards Farm across the river in Hoddom and this was known of old as Hoddom Castle. This castle was probably partly demolished to build the present one which was consequently known as Hoddom Stanes. An etching exists dated 1780 which shows the ruins of this old castle which was probably of 14th century date.’

Though our photo with the two black birds hovering above the tower (crows, ravens or jackaws) is not the kind of image we generally associate with cheerfulness, the atmosphere surrounding Hoddom Castle is not gloomy, as in other castles we’ve visited in Scotland, which doesn’t mean that it has not its lot of old and eerie stories to tell to the visitor who is  ready to listen to them.

In his book, Commander H.E. Spragge’s focuses on the historical side of the castle but, as I’m not very keen on genealogical facts, I’ve tried to find a more romantic approach of things in the old books contained in my library. What I’ve found is well worth the time I’ve spent on this research! First, in The Country of Sir Walter Scott by Charles S. Olcott, one of my favourite books about Sir Walter Scott, I’ve found a very  interesting passage about the use by Sir Walter of Hoddom Castle as a background for Redgauntlet.

Last but not least, the chapter is  illustrated with a black and white photography of Hoddom Castle taken by Charles Olcott around 1913. This photo gives us an idea of what the castle looked like a century ago, with its ivy-covered walls. The following extract from Charles S. Olcott, makes me feel like reading Redgauntlet… and I know I will 😉

But let us begin with the reading of an extract from Charles Olcott’s book :

‘The English residence of Hugh Redgauntlet to which Darsie was conducted by his captor, described as ancient and strong, with battlemented roof and walls of great thickness, but otherwise resembling a comfortable farmhouse, is purely fictitious. We visited, however, on the Scottish side of the Solway, a splendid modern castle, which, judged by an old painting of the place as it was in 1789, would admirably fit the description.

This is Hoddam Castle, five miles southwest of the village of Ecclefechan, Carlyle’s birthplace, where we spent a night in one of the quaintest little inns in Scotland, a survival of the time when Scottish inns offered few comforts to the traveller, but made up for it in proffered sociability. Hoddam Castle is beautifully situated in the midst of a grove of fine trees overlooking the river Annan.

A battlemented tower, surmounted by conical turrets, rises high above the extensive modern structure surrounding it. This is the ancient building, for centuries occupied by the Herries family. Scott originally intended to call his novel ‘Herries instead of ‘Redgauntlet’ , and was with much difficulty persuaded by Constable to accept the latter title. The old castle was built in the fifteenth century by John, Lord Herries, to whom was granted an extensive tract of land, extending over three or four counties.

The Herries family, to which Hugh Redgauntlet is supposed to belong, was always powerful. In their later years, like their fictitious descendant, its members were ardent supporters of the Stuart family. John Maxwell, who took the name of Lord Herries upon his marriage, was a zealous defender of Mary Queen of Scots.

He assisted her escape from Loch Leven Castle, fought for her at Langside, escorted her, after the battle, to his own house in Galloway, and thence to Dundrennan Abbey, and finally conducted her, in a small vessel, to England. His descendant, William, the ninth Lord Herries and fifth Earl of Nithsdale, participated in the Jacobite uprising of 1715. He was made a prisoner at Preston and sent to the Tower, where he was tried and condemned to death. His countess, with rare courage and resourcefulness, first forced her way to an audience with the King in St. James’s Palace, and pleaded on her knees for her husband’s life. Finding this ineffectual, she paid a last farewell visit to her husband, taking several lady friends with her.

They succeeded in disguising the Earl in feminine apparel and thus effected his escape. When Darsie Latimer was obliged, at his uncle’s command, to wear petticoats as a means of concealing his identity, he was only following the example of one of his ancestors.’ (The Country of Sir Walter Scott – ‘Redgauntlet’ -Charles S. Olcott – 1913 )

I’ve  read somewhere that Hoddom Castle may also have been used for Guy Mannering but I must confess I don’t know much about that. I only know that there is a link with the impressive Caerlaverock Castle. We’ve only  seen photos of this castle yet but they give a good idea of the place. Anyway, don’t you feel like reading Sir Walter Scott both novels now ? I do…

Hoddom Castle seems to have been a familiar place to Sir Walter Scott. In fact, he had a very good reason to visit the place for Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, one of Sir Walter’s best friends was born and inhabited there!

Both men seem to have shared many common points… Charles Kirkpatrick was a writer, an antiquarian, an artist and he also had a passion for the old ballads of the Scottish Border. He even contributed to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border!

‘In 1690 the castle and Barony of Hoddam passed from the Herries family to John Sharpe, and remained in the hands of his heirs until very recent times. One of these was Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Scott’s intimate friend, who helped collect the ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’ to which he contributed two ballads.

Scott was a frequent guest at his house, and he often dined with Scott’s family in Edinburgh or at Abbotsford. He was a man of distinction in letters and an artist as well.

Two well-known etchings by him, the ‘Dish of Spurs’ and ‘Muckle-Mouthed Meg,’ besides a caricature of Queen Elizabeth, adorn the walls of Abbotsford. His ancestors, like the Herries family, were ardent Jacobites.’

(The Country of Sir Walter Scott – ‘Redgauntlet’ -Charles S. Olcott – 1913 )

The best known contribution of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border is ‘The Twa Corbies’. I can’t help feeling Hoddom Castle is an  appropriate place to listen to that kind of ballad full of macabre humour ;-).  I’ve found a beautiful illustration of it by Arthur Rackam (1867– 1939), one of the most famous English book illustrators to whom we owe the marvellous illustrations of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, the masterpiece of J M Barrie, one our favourite Scottish authors.

The origin of this ballad is very ancient and there are several versions of it. The following is from the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders Part Second – Romantic Ballads – by Sir Walter Scott:

The Twa Corbies

As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane;
The tane unto the t’other say,
“Where sall we gang and dine to-day?”

“In behint yon auld fail[A] dyke,
“I wot there lies a new slain knight;
“And nae body kens that he lies there,
“But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

“His hound is to the hunting gane,
“His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,
“His lady’s ta’en another mate,
“So we may mak our dinner sweet.

“Ye’ll sit on his white hause bane,
“And I’ll pike out his bonny blue een:
“Wi’ ae lock o’ his gowden hair,
“We’ll theek[B] our nest when it grows bare.

“Mony a one for him makes mane,
“But nane sall ken whare he is gane:
“O’er his white banes, when they are bare,
“The wind sall blaw for evermair.”

[Footnote A: Fail–Turf.]

[Footnote B: Theek–Thatch.]

The Introduction of Twa Corbies written by Sir Walter Scott is  quite interesting. It reads :

This poem was communicated to me by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. jun. of Hoddom, as written down, from tradition, by a lady. It is a singular circumstance, that it should coincide so very nearly with the ancient dirge, called The Three Ravens, published by Mr Ritson, in his Ancient Songs; and that, at the same time, there should exist such a difference, as to make the one appear rather a counterpart than copy of the other. In order to enable the curious reader to contrast these two singular poems, and to form a judgment which may be the original, I take the liberty of copying the English ballad from Mr Ritson’s Collection, omitting only the burden and repetition of the first line. The learned editor states it to be given “From Ravencroft’s Metismata. Musical phansies, fitting the cittie and country, humours to 3, 4, and 5 voyces, London, 1611, 4to. It will be obvious (continues Mr Ritson) that this ballad is much older, not only than the date of the book, but most of the other pieces contained in it.” The music is given with the words, and is adapted to four voices:

There were three rauens sat on a tre,
They were as blacke as they might be:

The one of them said to his mate,
“Where shall we our breakfast take?”

“Downe in yonder greene field,
“There lies a knight slain under his shield;

“His hounds they lie downe at his feete,
“So well they their master keepe;

“His haukes they flie so eagerly,
“There’s no fowle dare come him nie.

“Down there comes a fallow doe,
“As great with yong as she might goe,

“She lift up his bloudy hed,
“And kist his wounds that were so red.

“She got him up upon her backe,
“And carried him to earthen lake.

“She buried him before the prime,
“She was dead her selfe ere euen song time.

“God send euery gentleman,
“Such haukes, such houndes, and such a leman.

Ancient Songs, 1792, p. 155.

I have seen a copy of this dirge much modernized.

……………………………..

For our French readers below is  a translation of The Two Corbies I’ve found on Wikipedia 😉

Alors que je me baladais tout seul,
J’ai ouï deux corbeaux poussant des râles.
L’un envers l’autre dit,
“Où irons nous dîner aujourd’hui?”

“En arrière de ce vieux mur de torchis.
Je sais qu’il y a là, nouvellement occis, un chevalier par terre.
Et personne ne sait qu’il est allongé là par terre,
Sauf son faucon, son chien et sa dulcinée belle.

Son chien est parti à la chasse,
Son faucon quérir des gibiers à plumes.
Sa dame a pris un autre amant,
Et donc on peut prendre un repas succulent.

Tu te percheras sur les os blancs de son cou,
Et je piquerai ses beaux yeux bleus.
D’une boucle de ses cheveux de chaume doré,
On recouvrira nos nids quand ils seront dénudés.”

Plein de monde pour lui geignent,
Mais personne saura où il est allé.
Sur ses os blanc dénudés
Le vent soufflera à jamais.

Well well well…  it seems that we always come back to Sir Walter and that’s with great pleasure! How we would like to have much more time to read all his books, and to be able to buy all the volumes of the Edinburgh edition of the Waverley Novels !

Dear readers, keep tuned for a little bird has just told me that Janice had a very interesting book to introduce on Scotiana…  a book about Sir Walter Scott. 😉

Bonne lecture !

A bientôt. Mairiuna

* Scottish Marches was the term used for the Anglo-Scottish border during late medieval and early modern eras—from the late 13th century, with the creation by Edward I of England of the first Lord Warden of the Marches to the early 17th century and the creation of the Middle Shires, promulgated after the personal union of England and Scotland under James VI of Scotland (James I of England).

On both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border there were the West March, the Middle March and the East March. These regions nearly mirrored each other but there was some overlap between the Scottish and English regions. The Lord Wardens of the Marches who oversaw these regions were tasked with keeping their monarchs domain secure, and when it was in their interests they would encourage cross border raiding or even full scale war. For centuries the Marches on either side of the boundary was an area of mixed allegiances, where families or clans switched which country or side they supported as suited their family interests at that time, and lawlessness abounded.

Before the two kingdoms were united as the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Border clans would switch allegiance between the Scottish and English thrones depending on what was most favourable for the members of the clan. For a time a powerful local clans dominated a region on the border between England and Scotland. It was known as the Debatable Lands and neither monarch’s writ was heeded. (Wikipedia)