A few years ago I came across a reference to Rakestonleis, a tower in the very south-west of Roxburghshire close to the border with England. Little seems to be known about it beyond it belonging to a Martin Crozier.

I added it to my website in the location given by Canmore, on the Caddroun Burn, with their name of Caddroun Burn Tower. The Canmore entry didn’t give much in the way of a history so I added it to my (very long) list of castles to research the history of at a future date.

Recently I was looking at Joan Blaeu’s mid-17th century map of Liddesdale while researching another castle and spotted the tower of Baikstontyes which reminded me to go back and look into Rakestonleis.

Blaeu’s maps were often based on the late 16th / early 17th century work of Timothy Pont who produced maps that can be quite difficult to read, with multiple corrections and names and sketches overlapping each other. As such transcription errors occurred and it seems likely that Blaeu’s Baikstontyes was originally Baikstonlyes on Pont’s now lost map of the area.

I’m a great believer in going back to the original source wherever possible when researching histories. In this case the Canmore entry informs us that it’s a map held by the British Library, part of an atlas made by Christopher Saxton under the patronage of Thomas Seckford and owned by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, giving it it’s common name, The Burghley Atlas.

The map, produced in December 1590, shows the prominent properties of the south-west border area between Scotland and the West Marches of England, and includes a tower at the top of the map labelled with the caption “Martin Crosiers of Bakstonleis”. The name Rakestonleis seems to have come from a misreading of Bakstonleis on this map.

Having established that the place I was looking for was in fact Bakstonleis and not Rakestonleis I looked at the modern Ordnance Survey map to see if I could find a name that looked similar, but I couldn’t find anything close. I then looked at what else was marked on the Burghley map to try to narrow down the search area.

Martin Crosier’s tower of Bakstonleis is shown on the west bank of the “Liddall flu” or Liddel Water, “flu” being an abbreviation for the Latin for river, “flumen” or “fluvius”. On the opposite bank is “y Wheele Cawsey”, the Wheel Causey or Wheel Causeway, a major medieval road from Roxburgh to Annandale. Some distance downstream is a confluence between the Liddel Water and the “Helcaldenburne”, also known as the Hellcaddrounburn or Caddroun Burn. Just south of the confluence, on the west bank of the Liddel Water, is a tower labelled “John of Copshawes“.

These clues helped to further narrow the area of interest. The site of John of Copshaw’s Tower is known near the confluence of the Liddel Water and the Caddroun Burn. The Liddel Water seems to stop being referred to that name around Myredykes but its major tributary flowing from the north is the Peel Burn, and running along the west side of the Peel Burn is the Wheel Causeway. On the east side of the Peel Burn is a building named Peel, which of course is an old name for a tower.

Working on the assumption that the Peel Burn was once known as a continuation of the Liddel Water and that Saxton had confused the east and west banks, quite a common occurrence in old maps, I continued looking at old maps. The map in the Burghley Atlas is the earliest representation followed by Blaeu’s mid-17th century Baikstontyes. Blaeu’s representation of the area around Baikstontyes is a bit confused, but there are elements there that are helpful.

The Liddell River is shown curving up above and away from Baikstontyes, while the Perrell burn runs away from Baikstontyes down the edge of Perrell fell to a confluence with the Bells burne at Bellshauch and Bellsyetts. Across the Perrell burn from Baikstontyes is Meeredÿck and beyond that Thorlishoope. Blaeu seems to have conflated the Liddel Water and the Peel Burn which has made the positioning of the various towers nearby, such as Thorlishoope, Hudshouse, Dastenburn and Dÿkcrot, slightly muddled. However it would seem clear that Perrell fell is Peel Fell, the Perrell burn is Peel burn, Meeredÿck is Myredykes, Bellshauch is Bewshaugh, and the Bells burne is Bells Burn which drains from Bells Moor and passes Bellsburnfoot, Bells Chapel and Bells Burn.

But there the cartographic trail runs cold. The next map to cover the area is William Roy’s map of the Lowlands, produced between 1752 and 1755, which shows three buildings and enclosed gardens named Peel.

Comparing the old and modern maps I was fairly sure that Bakstonleis and Peel were the same place, but I had no conclusive proof so I started searching for references to the place in books. I had no joy with the spellings Bakstonleis, Baikstontyes, Baikstonlyes and Rakestonleis, nor when altering the spelling slightly, so I changed tack and started searching for references to the Crozier family in the Borders in the 16th century.

This led me to the spelling “Baxtoun lee” in the first volume of The Border Papers which in turn led me to a reference to Baxtounlees in The Annals of a Border Club, which confirmed that when Thomas Scott, tenant of Lethem and second son of John Scott of Ashtrees, bought Baxtounlees from Archibald Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas of Douglas, in 1807 he renamed it Peel.

Canmore actually have a separate entry for Peel Tower in the right location but with none of the information that appears on the entry for Caddroun Burn Tower identifying it as Rakestonleis.

Incidentally there are two towers listed on Canmore with the name of Caddroun Burn Tower which are clearly two distinct towers. One as we have shown above was Martin Crozier’s Baxtonlees and the other, also listed as Caddroun Burn Tower, was owned by John of Copshaw. This second tower is better known as John of Copshaw’s Tower so it’s strange that Canmore uses the name of Caddroun Burn Tower, although it does stand near the Caddroun Burn where it flows into the Liddell Water.

You can read more about the history of Baxtonlees here.

References:

A Hawick Word Book
The Annals of a Border Club
The Border Papers, Volume 1

I came across a few antiquarian references which equated Tullibole with the old castle of Tolibothwell, a castle on record in the late 13th century and the intended site of a castle that Edward I of England intended to build. I wrote this up and didn’t think too much of it until I was contacted several years later by a member of the Tullibody History Group who informed me that Tolibothwell was actually more likely to refer to Tullibody Castle in Clackmannshire.

I intended to look into it but it took me a couple of years before I found the time, generously provided by the Coronavirus lockdown.

The lands of Tolibothwell or Tullibothwell, then known as Dunbodevin or Tulibodevin, are first mentioned in royal charters from the 12th century. Around 1140 David I founded the Abbey of Cambuskenneth and the foundation charter granted the abbey “the land of Cambuskenneth and the fishing between the said land and Pollemase and one net in the water; also the lands of Colling and Dunbodevin (Tulibodevin)”.

In 1164 Pope Alexander III confirmed various possessions to Alfred, Abbot of the church of Stirling, including “the land of Cambuskenneth; the fishing between the said land and Polmase, and one net in the water; also the land of Collyn, with the wood and pertinents; the land of Tulybethwyn, which is between the water of the said land and the land of Logyn….the island between Polmase and Tulibody“.

Collyn would seem to be Cowie to the south-east of Cambuskenneth and Logyn would seem to be Logie or Blairlogie to the north-east, approximately between which is Tullibody. This would seem to quite definitively identify the castle of Tolibothwell as that of Tullibody.

However some Tullibole references persisted so I looked into those. Some of the confusion undoubtedly stems from the origin of the placenames of Tullibole and Tullibody which share earlier spellings such as Tolibothwell. There are various theories as to the meaning of the placename but all are agreed that the first part contains the Gaelic word “tulach”, meaning mound or hill.

The second element of the name seems to have three main contenders. One suggests that it contains the British word “bodwin” which consists of two elements which together can be translated as “white church” or “white house”, while another suggests the Gaelic word “bothan” meaning hut or cottage. A third suggested origin takes this further and derives it from the Gaelic “tulach both abhuinn” meaning mound of the house by the river, while a fourth, and less likely in my opinion, theory sees “tulach bo dubh” or “the cows’ black hill”. Both Tullibole and Tullibody were the sites of early churches so the “white church” origin could fit quite nicely.

In 1293 a Sir William Soulis de Tolybotheville is on record. He has been interpreted in most sources as owning Tullibole rather than Tullibody, however following his death Simon de Lyndesaye, Lord of Wauchopdale, was described as “Gerdein del ermitage Soules.” This Simon is mentioned again below which might suggest that the place in question was in fact Tullibody.

The first suggestion of a castle at Tullibody comes in a letter from Edward I of England in June 1297 in which he states that during the First War of Scottish Independence he “verbally empowered Simon de Lindeseye to take possession, saving others’ rights, of the manor of Tuthebotheville, and none having come to the K. to claim it, to his knowledge, he signifies that Simon has taken possession and holds it at his own risk.” Sir Simon de Lindsay was the son of Sir Philip de Lindsay of Wauchope.

On the 20th of April 1304 Edward I wrote two letters from Tullibotheville, having seemingly stopped for the night on his way from Perth to the siege of Stirling Castle.

Early in the 14th century Edward I planned to build a pair of castles either side of the River Forth in order to protect the approach to Stirling. In 1304 or 1305 he sent writs to Sir John Sandale, Chamberlain of Scotland, instructing him to look for suitable sites for these castles. One of these writs was also sent to Sir John Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave, warden south of the Forth, regarding a site at Polmaise, while the other was sent to John of Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl, warden between the Forth and Orkney, regarding “a castle at Tulibothevile, but not having a fit site, commands them to buy or provide one by exchange in a good place beyond Forth.”

Tulibothevile appears in various later documents. Four messengers were dispatched from Berwick on the 15th of February 1306 carrying letters from the Chamberlain of Scotland to “le Covers and William de Hull at Tolibothevill castle/”. There are records of payments to “Alexander le Convers, clerk of works of the new castle of Tolibothvill, for 1 esquire, 1 contrarotulor, and 4 sergeants [named], from 15 Feb. – 26 Mar. 1306; for 6 esquires, 1 vintenarius with 20 balisters, and 64 archers, from 18 Feb. – 26 Mar. 1306; and for 4 watchmen from 15 Feb. – 26 Mar. 1306, total, £65 2s 6d.” It goes on to say that the aforementioned people were “were ejected by the king’s enemies” on the 27th of March suggesting that the castle had fallen to the Scots.

This led me to the discovery of a third Tolibothwell, this time in Kincardineshire. I found a couple of references to Robert the Bruce’s supporters having attacked “the new castle of Tolibothwell” in 1306, with one source giving the date of the 27th of March and a location to the south-west of Aberdeen. It would seem given the above unequivocal payment references that this does in fact refer to Tullibody in Clackmannanshire, but it did pique my interest as to whether or not there was also a Kincardineshire Tolibothwell.

In 1247 Alexander II granted land at Culter, Tulimacboythne and Ardboik to Robert de Wachehop or Wauchope, son of Alan de Wachehop. A Wauchope heiress married a Comyn of Inverallochy and the aforementioned lands seem to have passed into that family.

There is of course a second interesting link between the Kincardineshire and Clackmannanshire Tolibothwells here since the Lindsays of Wauchope held the Clackmannanshire one for Edward I in the late 13th century.

At first glance the name Tulimacboythne doesn’t seem so close to Tolibothwell however in 1324 or 1325 Alexander Burnard received from Robert the Bruce a grant of lands that had been forfeited by the Comyns, namely the barony of Tullibothil in Kincardineshire and the barony of Little Culter in Aberdeenshire. They later passed to the Meldrum family and at some point were renamed Kilduthie, appearing on Timothy Pont’s late 16th century map as a tower named Kildutthy.

Now we return to the Clackmannanshire Tolibothwell. In September 1307 Sir Thomas de la Haye, the son of a Hay of Lochorwart, submitted a petition to Edward II of England at Rutherglen asking “for compensation of one year’s rent of his wife’s land of Tolybotheuille, value 80 marks, which the late K. had taken, intending to build a castle there”. Thomas’s wife was Lora, daughter of William de Cuningesburgh.

That the de Cuningesburghs owned Tolybotheuille seems clear from the above, however there is an interesting link between the Hays and the earlier owners the Soulis family. Both families trace their origins to the Saint-Lô arronidssement in the La Manche department of Normandy, the former from La Haye and the latter from Soulles. In the first half of the 12th century William de Haya married Juliana de Soulis, sister of Ranulf de Soulis who came to Scotland with David I and built Liddel Castle. The son of William and Juliana, also William, later joined his uncle in Scotland and is considered to be the progenitor of Clan Hay.

The Hay family certainly owned Tullibody by 1364 as Sir Thomas’s son, Sir John Hay of Tholybothil, married Christian Keith, daughter of Sir William Keith, Great Marischal of Scotland, in that year, and “Johanne de Haya, domino de Tolibothuill” is mentioned in 1372. Their son, also John Hay, married Margaret Stewart, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Ralston.

They had a daughter, Egida or Egidia Hay, who in 1426 married Alexander Seton (later known as Alexander Gordon, 1st Earl of Huntly), son of Alexander Seton, Lord Gordon. Her husband was described as “master of Gordon, lord of Tullibody” in 1440. Their son, also Sir Alexander Seton, was the ancestor of the Setons of Touch, an estate he acquired from the Frasers in the mid-15th century.

Tullibody passed through the Seton and Erskine families before being acquired by Sir William Alexander of Menstrie in 1629. The following year he was created Lord Alexander of Tullibody and Viscount of Stirling and in 1633 was created 1st Earl of Stirling and Viscount Canada.

Some time before March 1648 Tullibody was bought by Robert Meldrum as in that month he was appointed one of two shire commissioners for Clackmannanshire, along with Sir Charles Erskine of Cambuskenneth, and was Member of Parliament for Clackmannanshire in the same year. Meldrum is said to have built Tullibody House in the 1650s although whether this was a completely new house or incorporated an older building is not clear. In 1654 Meldrum was fined £1000 by Oliver Cromwell along with many other members of “the gentrie and nobilitie”.

Robert Meldrum died in 1662 and Tullibody House passed to his brother, Major George Meldrum, who some sources state sold the house to Sir William Sharp of Staneyhill in the same year. Sharp was appointed deputy Keeper of the Signet in 1660 and a shire commissioner for Clackmannanshire in 1667, and is said to have sold Tullibody in 1679 to George Abercromby of Skeith. The Abercrombys then owned Tullibody until the early 20th century when the house changed hands again.

Some time in the mid-20th century the house was abandoned and suffered at the hands of vandals. In 1960 a partial photographic survey of the house was carried out as part of the Scottish National Buildings Record however it was subsequently demolished in 1961 or 1963 following a fire. Today the surrounding area is mainly farmland although the outline of the old gardens can still be traced and numerous trees from them survive.

My intention with this blog post was to gather together the references to the three castles of Tolibothwell so that they are all recorded in one place, showing that they were distinct properties. You can read more on the history of each of them on the pages for Tullibody, Tullibole and Kilduthie.

Small businesses have been hit particularly hard as the lockdown has impacted on how we shop. These small businesses provide income and employment for thousands of people (including myself, I’m a freelance designer) and some will inevitably not survive as a result of being cut off from many of their customers and revenue streams. I believe it’s important to support these small businesses wherever and however we can.

Scotland is blessed with dozens of independent breweries many of whom will now be feeling the pinch as their usual routes to market have been disrupted or cut off altogether as pubs and restaurants have closed and supply chains have changed.

I believe it’s important, for many reasons, to help these breweries to survive – for the individual business owners, for the employees and for the great products they make to continue to be available once things eventually get back to normal.

There is an ancient Celtic axiom that says “Good people drink good beer.” Which is true, then as now. Just look around you in any public barroom and you will quickly see: Bad people drink bad beer. Think about it.
Hunter S Thompson

The best way to help them is to buy beer!

Several breweries are still delivering beer – some nationally, some only locally – to keep whistles wet through these challenging times. I’ve collected together below the ones I know about. Some breweries who aren’t able to deliver beer may still be selling merchandise so that is another way to support your favourite brewery.

If you know of any others, or are one, please e-mail me at andy at stravaiging.com or you can contact me via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and I will update this page.

Our first stop was on the west edge of Annan where in the early 12th century David I granted land to the de Brus family on the east bank of the River Annan, and soon after 1124 they began building a timber and earthwork castle.

Annan Castle consists of a motte at the north end of a bailey, separated from it by a ditch. The motte has a diameter of around 15m and rises to a height of around 6m and is now covered in trees.

The flat area of the bailey stretches to a length of some 260m and is now a public park.

The rain was pretty Biblical by this point so after slipping and sliding our way down the ditch in an attempt to climb the motte we admitted defeat and headed down towards the river below. Just below the castle the three-arched Annan Bridge carries the B721 across the river and into the town. It was built between 1824 and 1827 to a design by Robert Stevenson.

The weather wasn’t conducive to wandering so we made our way back to the car and drove across the bridge on our way north-west to Hoddom Castle.

Hoddom Castle is a substantial tower house which was built by Sir John Maxwell, later 6th Lord Herries of Terregles, in 1565. It stands within a bend in the River Annan, although at a distance of several hundred metres to the riverbank. Immediately to the east of the castle the land falls away down to the land defined by the river and to the south is a deep gully, providing natural protection on two sides. The gully is crossed by a bridge which was built in the 19th century.

The castle originally stood at the north-east corner of a courtyard, and sections of the courtyard wall still stand (although parts of it were rebuilt in the 19th century. At each of the other three corners of the courtyard were two storey round towers with vaulted basements and splayed gun-loops.

A gateway in the west courtyard wall is thought to date from the late 17th or early 18th centuries.

In 1826 the then owner, Lt Gen Matthew Sharpe, commissioned William Burn to remodel the castle, extending it to the south and west, work which was completed in 1832. Later in the 19th century Wardrop and Anderson were commissioned to add neo-Jacobean extensions to the north and west of the castle.

Hoddom Castle was subsequently by the War Office during the Second World War and was occupied during the War by Commandos, French Canadian troops, the 51st Highland Division and around 400 Churchill tanks which would later see service in North Africa. In 1947 the contents of the castle were sold and in 1953 the demolition of the south and west wings began. William Burn’s additions were largely demolished in the 1970s, leaving extensive scarring on the old tower. The remaining 19th century additions to the north were used as offices for a caravan park which now occupies the grounds to the west of the tower.

It was really too wet for more than the quickest of explorations, but a glimpse of colour in the undergrowth proved too intriguing and the dense canopy of the rhododendrons at least provided some shelter from the rain.

After a brief respite from the rain under the rhododendrons we ventured back out into the downpour. Our original plan of climbing a nearby hill to Repentance Tower was swiftly rejected in favour of making do with a photo from a distance and heading for the car.

A short distance away, just after crossing the River Annan once more, we stopped briefly to take a photo of Hallguards, a multi-period house built on the site of Old Hoddom Castle which unsurprisingly was Hoddom Castle‘s predecessor.

The main façade is early 20th century but it hides a 17th century wing which forms the nucleus of the current house which was altered again in 1795 and around 1860. The 17th century wing was apparently built onto the old castle but the old castle was later demolished.

With the rain continuing to pour we decided to save the remaining castles on our itinerary for another, drier, day and set off north on our way home.

The Quintinshill rail disaster, as it became known, involved a troop train carrying the Territorial 1/7th (Leith) Battalion of the Royal Scots who were heading south on their way to Gallipoli. Following mistakes made by two signalmen the troop train collided with a stationary passenger train, and the resulting wreckage was subsequently hit by an express train to Glasgow. Some 226 people are believed to have been killed and of the 500 troops on the train only 58 soldiers and 7 officers were able to make it to roll call that afternoon, the rest having been either killed or injured.

Each year a service of remembrance is held at Rosebank cemetery where most of the dead were laid to rest and to mark the 100th anniversary a parade was organised, following the route of the funeral cortège. After the service the parade passed by Hepburn House, the headquarters of the 52nd Lowland Regiment which forms the Territorial 6th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. As the Royal Colonel of the regiment Princess Anne attended, as did the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scotland’s lone Tory MP and newly-appointed Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell.