[1004] It is tempting to connect the extraordinary preponderance of mottes, as shown by Dr Christison’s map, in the shires which made up ancient Galloway (Wigton, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries) with the savage resistance offered by Galloway, which may have made it necessary for all the Norman under-tenants to fortify themselves, each in his own motte-castle. It is wiser, however, to delay such speculations until we have the more exact information as to the number of mottes in Scotland, which it is hoped will be furnished when the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments has finished its work. But this work will not be complete unless special attention is paid to the earthworks which now form part of stone castles, and which are too often overlooked, even by antiquaries. The New Statistical Account certainly raises the suspicion that there are many more mottes north of the Forth than are recognised in the map alluded to. In one district we are told that “almost every farm had its knap.” “Forfarshire,” p. 326.
[1005] Cited by Fordun, v., 43.
[1006] Benedict of Peterborough, i., 68, R. S.
[1007] Fordun, v., 26. Bower in one of his interpolations to Fordun’s Annals, tells how a Highlander named Gillescop burnt certain wooden castles (quasdam munitiones ligneas) in Moray. Skene’s Fordun, ii., 435.
[1008] That Fordun should speak of the castra and municipia of Macduff is not surprising, seeing that he wrote in the 14th century, when a noble without a castle was a thing unthinkable.
[1009] Burton actually thought that the Normans built no castles in Scotland in the 12th century. Messrs MacGibbon and Ross remark that there is not one example of civil or military architecture of the 12th century, while there are so many fine specimens of ecclesiastical. Castellated Architecture of Scotland, i., 63. It is just to add that when speaking of the castles of William the Lion, they say: “It is highly probable that these and other castles of the 13th century were of the primeval kind, consisting of palisaded earthen mounds and ditches.” Ibid., iii. 6.
[1010] Mote is the word used in Scotland, as in the north of England, Pembrokeshire, and Ireland, for the Norman motte. As the word is still a living word in Scotland, its original sense has been partly lost, and it seems to be now applied to some defensive works which are not mottes at all. But the true motes of Scotland entirely resemble the mottes of France and England.
[1011] Scottish Review, xxxii., 232.
[1012] Scottish Review, xxxii., 232.
[1013] Ibid., p. 236.