Description(Centred: NY 084968) Lochwood Castle (NR)
(Remains of) The Mount (NAT). (OS 6" map, (1957))
For architectural fragments from this tower-house removed to Raehills (NY 0635 9432), see NY09SE 31. For bell said to have been removed from Lochwood Tower to Johnstone parish church (NY 1002 9135), see NY19SW 77.
Lochwood Tower, principal seat of the Johnstone clan of Annandale, built apparently in the 15th c, and described in 1547 as a 'fair large tower ... with ... hall, kitchen and stables, all within the barmkin ...' (RCAHMS 1920). Abutting on the N side is a hillock 'apparently in part artificial' (D Christison 1891) named 'The Mount', a scheduled, circular double-terraced motte with ramparts, Norman predecessor of the stone tower. South of the tower, in the centre of a level meadow which was probably the garden, is an artificially-looking, ditched earthen mound, some 9ft high and 36 to 40ft across the base (cf Logan in Galloway). (RCAHMS 1920)
Lochwood Tower, its associated outbuildings, and The Mount - a motte, are generally as described and planned. There is no mound to the south only on the west which does not seem to be antiquity. Resurveyed at 1:2500. Visited by OS (R D) 26 March 1972
No change to previous field report. Visited by OS (M J F) 29 August 1978.
Lochwood Castle, a motte-and-bailey overlain by a later stone castle, lies on the E side of a promontory about 600m long and 400m wide which thrusts northwards into an area of largely-unreclaimed moss. The motte stands to the N, immediately outside the precincts of the later castle. It has been fashioned from a natural mound up to 12m high on the N and E, and up to 6m high on the S and W, its elongated summit measuring 7m from N to S by 4m transversely. The nature of a number of terraces around the sides of the motte is unclear, although they may be the result of later landscaping.
On the S, the bailey is occupied by what remains of the stone castle, the principal feature of which is a late-15th-century L-plan tower-house surviving to first floor height above a vaulted ground floor. A substantial domestic range, its walls standing to a height of about 1.5m, occupies the E side of the courtyard, extending from the the tower-house to the base of the motte, and at its N end there is a well-preserved oven; two smaller buildings lie on the W and N sides respectively of the courtyard.
The site has been excavated and the remains of the buildings have been consolidated, but at the date of visit it was unclear whether some of the visible features had been created during the process of consolidation. Visited by RCAHMS (IMS), 3 June 1991.
Quite extensive remains of a stronghold commanding the upper parts of Annandale, occupied by the Johnstones of that Ilk (later Earls of Annandale) from the late 12th to the early 18th century. (J Gifford 1996)
Lochwood, motte-and-bailey and tower. (RCAHMS 1997) (Canmore)
Description: Remains of towerhouse reconstructed following fire in 1593 with - essentially 17th Century - ranges extending N; abandoned presumably when Raehills was built in the 1780s; walls of N ranges rebuilt during course of 1980s excavations to uniform height (several feet high) and covered with concrete screed. Tower has vaulted basement.
Notes: Change of Category B to C(S) 22.2.88. Scheduled Monument 28 February 2000.
References: MacGibbon and Ross, CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE, vol IV, 1892 (1977 reprint), p. 399; RCAHM INVENTORY, 1920, no. 315
De-listed September 2009 Information from Historic Scotland (Canmore - delisting notice)
The monument consists of a motte-and-bailey castle (commonly called 'the Mount') with a later stone castle situated to the south. The stone castle consists of a large fifteenth century L-planned tower with adjacent courtyard containing ranges of ancillary buildings. The monument was first scheduled in 1924 but the area was inadequate to protect all the remains: the present rescheduling rectifies this.
Lochwood Castle was the principal seat of the Johnstone family from the late twelfth century up until the early eighteenth century when the castle was accidentally burned down. In 1547 the castle was described as 'a fair large tower ... with a barmkin hall, kitchen and stables, all within the barnekin'.
The motte-and-bailey castle lies on the E side of a promontory about 600m long and 400 wide which projects northward into Lochwood moss. The motte is situated to the N of the site, just outside the confines of the later stone castle. It has been formed by scarping a natural mound which is up to 12m high on the N and E, and up to 6m high on the S and W, its elongated summit measuring 7m from N to S by 4m transversely. The motte is encircled by two terraces. To the S of the motte lie the remains of the bailey now occupied and obscured by the later stone castle.
The tower is constructed of whinstone rubble with dressed red sandstone surrounds to the windows. The main block measures approximately 11m N-S and 13m E-W, while the jamb projects 3m from the southern half of the N elevation, and measures 5m E-W. The entrance is in the re-entrant angle, and leads directly to a large turnpike, and a mural passage giving access to the basement. In the east wall of this passage a doorway gives access to a second mural passage leading to a prison. The basement is barrel vaulted and is sub-divided into two unequal parts by a cross wall. The first floor is similarly sub-divided, with the larger eastern chamber supplied with a small fireplace and a secondary slop outlet. The tower was extensively consolidated in the 1980s.
The other element of the stone castle consists of two, adjacent, quadrilateral enclosures, with an overall measurement of 46m N-S and 29m E-W. The N enclosure has ranges of buildings built along all but its S wall. The S enclosure has a single range along its N wall, which abuts the jamb of the tower house. At basement level there were two cellars and a kitchen, with a large fireplace, connected by a long trance.
The area to be scheduled includes the motte, the banks and ditches of the bailey, the tower house, its enclosures and ranges, and an area around it, which has the potential for associated archaeology. The area scheduled is irregular in shape and has maximum dimensions of 150m NNW-SSE and 104m from the easternmost to the southwesternmost corners, as marked in red on the attached map. Part of the S and W boundaries of the scheduled area are defined by a modern fence line. The top 50cm of the surface of the roadway within the scheduled area is excluded from the scheduling to enable minor repair and alterations without the need for scheduled monument consent. (Scheduling Report)
