Banff.—It seems clear that Banff Castle had a motte, because the doggerel rhymes of Arthur Johnstone in 1642 say:
A place was near which was a field until
Our ancestors did raise it to a hill;
A stately castle also on it stood.
The Gazetteer says: “The citadel occupied a mount, originally at the end though now near the middle of the town.” The site is still called Castle Hill. (N. S. A.)
Crail, Fife.—The O.M. does not show a motte here. The N. S. A. says “there was a royal residence here, upon an eminence overlooking the harbour.” That this “eminence” was a motte seems clear from the Register of the Great Seal, quoted by Mr Neilson, which speaks of “Le Moitt olim Castrum” in 1573.
Cupar.—There seem to be two mottes here, both raised on a natural “esker”; the one formerly called the Castle Hill is now called the School Hill, the school having been built upon it. The other and higher hill is called the Moot Hill, and is said to be the place where the earls of Fife used to dispense justice. (N. S. A.) Mr Neilson states that both are mentioned in the Registrum.
Dumfries.—Here there were two mottes, one being now the site of a church, the other, called Castle Dykes, a short distance S. of the town, on the opposite side of the river. Both no doubt were royal castles, and Mr Neilson has suggested that as an old castlestead is spoken of in a charter of William the Lion, it implies that a new castle had recently been built, possibly after the great destruction of the royal castles in Galloway in 1174.[1034] The Castle Dykes appears to be the later castle, as it is spoken of in the 16th century. (N.)
Dunskeath, Cromarty.—Built by William the Lion in 1179. The castle is built on a small moat overhanging the sea. (G.)