Auchencloigh Castle

Auchencloigh Castle Photo © Kath Jones, 6 September 2009

Auchencloigh Castle Photo © Raymond Okonski, 12 April 2007

Now reduced to a pile of rubble, even the nearby farmhouse that shares its name suffered a similar fate. The ground nearby (former opencast coal workings) meant the buildings were not treated with respect and is being returned to agricultural grazing land.

All that remains of this castle is a broken and irregular mass of stone and lime. This has once been a rectangular building of great strength; its walls are from 2' - 5' high and about 5' thick.

Though not properly ranking under the title of eminent men, it must not be forgotten that the famous Alexander Peden, of prophetic memory, was a native of Sorn parish. He was born in 1626, as asserted by some, at the farm-house of Auchencloigh, and died at his brother's house, near the place of his nativity, in 1686.

Alexander Peden

Alexander Peden (1626 - 26 January 1686), also known as Prophet Peden, was one of the leading forces in the Covenanter movement, was born at Auchincloich Farm near Sorn, Ayrshire, about 1626, and was educated at the University of Glasgow. He was a teacher at Tarbolton and then ordained minister of New Luce in Galloway in 1660.

After the restoration of Charles II, Peden had to leave his parish under Middletons Ejectment Act in 1663. For ten years he wandered far and wide, bringing comfort and succour to his co-religionists, and often very narrowly escaping capture, spending some of his time in Ireland. To hide his identity, Peden took to wearing a cloth mask and wig, which are now on display in Edinburgh's Museum of Scotland.

In June 1673 while holding a conventicle at Knockdow near Ballantrae, Ayrshire, he was captured by Major William Cockburn, and condemned by the Privy Council to four years and three months imprisonment on the Bass Rock and a further fifteen months in the Edinburgh Tolbooth.

In December 1678 he, along with 60 others, was sentenced to banishment to the American plantations. They were transported by ship to London, where they were supposed to be transferred to an American ship, however the American captain on hearing the reason for their banishment released them. Peden made his way north again to divide the remaining years of his life between his own country and the north of Ireland. His last days were spent in a cave on the River Lugar in the parish of Sorn, near his birthplace and his brother's farm in Auchinleck, and there he died in 1686, worn out by hardship and privation.

He was buried in Auchinleck churchyard. Six weeks later his body was exhumed by troops from Sorn Castle, who planned to hang his corpse from the gallows in Cumnock. However William Crichton, 2nd Earl of Dumfries objected to the hanging, so the troops buried the corpse at the foot of the gallows. In 1891 a monument was erected to mark the spot.

Prophet Peden receives a good deal of attention in Jack Deere's book "Surprised by the Voice of God" which records prophetic and other charismatic gifts practiced by historical reformed figures. In 1682, Peden performed the wedding ceremony of John Brown and Isabel Weir. He told Isabel after the ceremony, "You have a good man to be your husband, but you will not enjoy him long; prize his company, and keep linen by you to be his winding sheet, for you will need it when ye are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one".

On the night of 30 April 1685, troops commanded by Captain John Graham of Claverhouse shot John Brown for Brown's refusal to take the Oath of Abjuration or to swear not to rise in arms against the king. This Oath required the person taking it to "abhor, renounce and disown in the presence of Almighty God, the pretended Declaration of War [Renwick's "Vindication"] lately affixed at several parish churches, in so far as it declares war against his sacred Majesty, and asserts that it is lawful to kill such as serve his Majesty in Church, State, Army or Country, or such as act against the authors of the pretended Declaration now shown to me." It had absolutely nothing to do with proclaiming the king, rather than Christ, as the head of the church. Further, weapons and treasonable writings were found in Brown's house. The story that Claverhouse subsequently taunted Brown's wife about his death appeared some years after his death, written by men who were not present at the time. Peden was 11 miles away. He prayed with the family of John Muirhead in his home, "Lord, when wilt Thou avenge Brown's blood? O, let Brown's blood be precious in Thy sight." Peden told them of his vision of Brown's wife weeping over his corpse and of Claverhouse killing John Brown. Isabel Brown buried her husband in the sheet she has saved. Peden was well-known for God's spectacular answers to his prayers.