Terringzean Castle, East Ayrshire

The surviving part of the wheel-stair.

A plan of the castle.

Terringzean Castle occupies the summit of a high, steep bank overlooking the Lugar Water and the Terringzean Holm; a dry moat ending at the steep natural haughs or slopes, is still clearly visible as a protective measure against approach from the level ground to the south-east and south-west. The moat's appearance is mainly due to the excavations carried out by the 3rd Lord Bute in the 1890s.

The small, irregular, octangular 14th-century vaulted tower has a splayed base[4][5] and is constructed of courses of square ashlar masonry,[6] 6 m (20 ft) high, with walls 2.0m thick, is the earliest part of the structure, together with the wide wall at the north-west. The tower was vaulted, with three ribs, and an entrance from the courtyard via a narrow passage leading to a partly surviving wheel-stair.[4] The remains of outbuildings lie to the north and a well was recorded within the keep; a sizeable courtyard lay within the complex.[7] The remains have seen some restoration[8] and the lines of excavation trenches are apparent. The whereabouts of the records of the late 19th-century excavations is not known for certain.[9]

The ruins suggest a 'castle of enceinte' like Loch Doon Castle with a massive walled enclosure.[10] A medieval hall house existed before this walled enclosure, possibly of a 13th-century date, indicating that an even earlier fortification may have been present.[10] MacGibbon and Ross saw similarities between the tower of Terringzean and that of Mugdock Castle.[4]

William Aiton's map of the area, circa 1811

The earliest known reference to Terringzean dates from the Exchequer Rolls' in 1438, making however no mention of the castle, when £14 Scots was paid in tax from the lands to support the royal household.[3][11]

Old dovecot at Dumfries House, dated 1671.

The Barony, castle and lands of Terringzean have a complex history of possession, with the Craufurds, also Crawfurd, being the first recorded. This family had an armorial bearing of a Stag's Head and may have been descended therefore from the Craufurds of Dalmagregan.[12] They also and separately held Lefnoreis Castle, now the location of Dumfries House with only the dovecot surviving from the old castle.[12] The family had ceased to hold Terringzean by 1467, the lands having passed to Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran.[12] At this time it is referred to as 'Craufuirdstone, alias Terringzeane' The Terringzean Craufurds were relatives of Sir William Wallace's mother.[13][14]

Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran fell out of favour with King James III, despite his having been married to Princess Mary, the King's sister.[8] The lands passed to the King due to this forfeiture in 1469,[12] these lands were to belong to the first born princes of the Kings of Scotland.[15] In 1488 one Thomas Turnbull was granted the castle in recognition of his good services at Blackness in 1488.[12]

In 1488 Sir John Ramsay de Trarinzeane (sic) held the life-rent of the castle and lands. He sat in parliament and was a great friend of King James III, spared however when the nobles executed the friends of the king at the 'Raid of Lauder'.[16] He was once Lord of Bothwell and was the ancestor of the Balmain family.[12] William Ramsay of Balmain was granted the lands in 1534.[12]

In 1546, Hugh Campbell, Earl of Loudoun held the lands upon their resignation by one John Campbell of Bruntswood. Hugh Campbell held them in 1587 and may have represented a cadet line of the Campbells of Loudoun.[12] In 1621 Sir John Campbell and his wife Margaret Campbell acquired the lands from his wife's father, the Master of Loudoun.[12]

The tower from the south-east.

The castle and mound from the Lugar Water

The Crichton-Stuarts, Earls of Dumfries acquired these lands and the castles of Craufuirdstone and Lochnorris from the Campbells of Loudoun in the person of Sir Matthew Campbell, father-in-law,[11] who sold the lands to Lord Dumfries in 1696.[13] The Earl of Loudoun still holds the subsidiary title of Lord Taringzean.[6][17]

Other holders were Hugh Montgomerie of Bridgend in 1647; in 1666, James Reid, merchant burgess of Edinburgh; in 1691, Sir George Campbell of Cessnock; in 1692, Sir James Carmichael, Bart., as heir of Sir James Carmichael of Bonington; in 1696, John, Viscount Stair and then the Earls of Dumfries, who became the Marquis of Bute.[12]

In 2007 a consortium, led by the Prince of Wales, including various heritage charities and the Scottish Government, purchased from the 7th Marquess, Dumfries House, along with its roughly 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) estate).