Avenel.—Walter de Avenel held Abercorn Castle and estate, in Linlithgow, in the middle of the 12th century. The castle stood on a green mound (N. S. A.) which is clearly marked in the O.M.
Balliol.—The De Bailleul family had their seat at Barnard Castle, in Durham, after the Conquest. They obtained lands in Galloway from David I., and had strongholds at Buittle, and Kenmure, in Kirkcudbright. At Buittle the site of the castle exists, a roughly triangular bailey with a motte at one corner;[1016] and at Kenmure the O.M. clearly shows a motte, as does the picture in Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland. The terraces probably date from the time when the modern house on top was built.
Barclay.—The De Berkeleys sprang from the De Berkeleys of England, and settled in Scotland in the 12th century. Walter de Berkeley was Chamberlain of Scotland in 1165; William the Lion gave him the manor of Inverkeilor, in Forfarshire; there he built a castle, on Lunan Bay. “An artificial mound on the west side of the bay, called the Corbie’s Knowe, bears evident marks of having been a castle long previous to the erection of Redcastle.” (N. S. A.) The family also had lands in what is now Aberdeenshire, and at Towie, in the parish of Auchterless, they had a castle. “Close to the church of Auchterless there is a small artificial eminence of an oval shape, surrounded by a ditch, which is now in many places filled up. It still retains the name of the Moat Head, and was formerly the seat of the baronial court.” (N. S. A.; N.; C.)
Bruce.—The De Brus held lands in North Yorkshire at the time of the Domesday Survey. David I. gave them the barony of Annan, in Dumfriesshire. The original charter of this grant still exists in the British Museum, witnessed by a galaxy of Norman names.[1017] Their chief castles were at Annan and Lochmaben. At Annan, near the site of a later castle, there is still a motte about 50 feet high, with a vast ditch and some traces of a bailey (N.), called the Moat (N. S. A.). The “terras de Moit et Bailyis, intra le Northgate,” are mentioned in 1582. South of the town of Lochmaben, on the N.W. side of the loch, is a fine motte called Castle Hill, with some remains of masonry, which is still pointed out as the original castle of the Bruces.[1018] (G.) The fine motte and bailey at Moffat must also have been one of their castles, as Moffat was one of their demesne lands. ([Fig. 44].)
Cathcart.—Name territorial. Rainald de Cathcart witnesses a charter (in the Paisley Register) in 1179. Near the old castle of Cathcart, Lanark, is “an eminence called Court Knowe.” (N. S. A.) As Mr Neilson has shown, these court knowes and court hills are generally disused mottes. The name Rainald is clearly Norman.
Cheyne.—This family is first known in 1258, but had then been long settled in Scotland, and were hereditary sheriffs of Banffshire. Chalmers only mentions their manor of Inverugie, in Aberdeenshire. Behind the ruins of Inverugie Castle rises a round flat-topped hill, which was the Castle Hill or Mote Hill of former days. (N. S. A.)
Colville.—Appears in Scotland in the reign of Malcolm IV., holding the manors of Heton and Oxnam, in Roxburgh. About ¼ mile from Oxnam (which was a barony) is a moated mound called Galla Knowe. (O.M., C., and N.) Hailes identified the castle in Teviotdale, captured and burnt by Balliol in 1333, with that of Oxnam.[1019] Le Mote de Oxnam is mentioned in 1424 (N.).
Annan.
