Giffen Castle

The Barony of Giffen and its associated 15th-century castle were in the parish of Beith in the former District of Cunninghame, now North Ayrshire. The site may be spelled Giffen or Giffin and lay within the Lordship of Giffin, which included the Baronies of Giffen, Trearne, Hessilhead, Broadstone, Roughwood and Ramshead; valued at £3788 9s 10d.^[2] The Barony of Giffen comprised a number of properties, including Greenhills, Thirdpart, Drumbuie, Nettlehirst and Balgray, covering about half of the parish of Beith.^[3] Giffen was a hundred merk land, separated from the Barony of Beith, a forty pound land, by the Powgree Burn which rises on Cuff hill.^[4] The Lugton Water or the Bungle burn running through Burnhouse may have been the Giffen barony boundary with that of the adjacent barony and lands of Aiket castle.

Giffen has a recorded history that covers many of familiar aspects of a feudal barony, including the possession of a 'Moot' or 'Justice Hill' here represented by 'Greenhills', as well as a thirled mill and a 'gathering place' known as the 'Borestone'. Other features such as the old chapel and the holy well add to the expected features, most of which unfortunately no longer survive.

The history of Giffen Castle

The tower castle of Giffen lay near to the existing Mains of Giffen site on the summit of a whinstone trap ridge at (NS 37727 50718). MacGibbon and Ross^[1] suggest that Giffen Castle was built in the 15th-century, although the 13th-century (1233)^[5] land grant to Walter de Mulcaster and the prior existence of a chapel, suggest that a defensive structure of some sort was present at that date. At the time of Pont's survey (J Dobie 1876), it was a tower 30 ft (9.1 m) square, 40 ft (12 m) high, with walls 6 ft (1.8 m) thick. It fell into disrepair soon after 1726 and finally collapsed in 1838. It has also been recorded as 'Griffen' on some old maps of the district.

The castle was acquired by Sir John Anstruther in the early 18th-century and he is responsible for allowing it to become a ruin, together with the associated Giffin farm. The sundial originally in the Giffen castle garden was sold and was moved eventually to Crummock house, Beith, now demolished. This sundial had its horizontal plane divided by volutes, between which a lion's head alternates with a rose; it was made in 1719 and repaired in 1810. Local farm houses were built using stone from the front wall of the castle, which was consequently entirely removed. Above the entrance door there had been a carving of a man shooting with a crossbow at what has been called a wild boar. It is not unlikely that this commemorates a feat of bold hunting by a member of the family of Giffen. A similar carving at Linton parish church commemorates just such a feat, for which William the Lion knighted the bowman and bestowed upon him the lands and barony of Linton.^[1]

On 12 April 1838, during the silence of the night, the old castle fell leaving little more than a disorderly heap of stones. The adjacent Mains of Giffen farm had been feued by Anstruther to Robert Craig in 1726. John King of 'Giffin Miln' built his house using stone from the castle and this is probably how the old carvings came to be incorporated into the walls of this building. The door jambs are also said to have come from the old castle. Thomas Craig, grandson of Robert, passed on the feu to Thomas White in 1816, during whose possession the castle met its final fall, inspiring the following indignant poem by James Wilson, the local poet:

In August 1956 the OS reported that the remains of Giffen Castle now consist of three fragments of rubble masonry, the largest portion measuring 4.0 m long by 2.0 m thick and 1.9 m high. The remainder of the castle was demolished in about 1920 when the adjoining quarry was dug.

In June 1983 the OS visited the site again and stated that there are no remains of the castle in situ. The three fragments of masonry are in fact large tumbled blocks, and together with a mass of loose shaped stone, also from the castle, form a garden rockery. A marriage stone lintel above the doorway of the adjacent Mains house is inscribed RC MC 1758. This appears contemporaneous to the single story house and of doubtful association with the old castle.

Mr. Robert King, the farmer of the lands near Giffen castle reported in the 1890s that when digging drains to the north-east of the castle he came across a large number of bones which tradition says were there as a result of a battle fought by the lord of the castle, his retainers and an attacking party. The bones were in a hollow to the west of the castle, and between it and the high ground on which the castle and hamlet of Giffen stood.^[7]

Giffen House

William Patrick Esq. of Roughwood and Woodside, a descendant of the ancient family of the Ayrshire Patricks, purchased the mid-superiority^[8] of Giffen from the Earl of Eglinton in 1855 and also acquired the dominum utile^[9] of much of the barony. In 1861 his grandnephew, Henry Gardiner Patrick, son of John Shedden Patrick of Trearne and Woodside, succeeded to the property and built a large and handsome mansion-house in the Scottish Baronial style on the lands of Bankhead farm, a little over two miles (3 km) from the old Castle of Giffen.^[10]^[11]

Giffen Castle and Stables was designed in 1869 by architects Andrew Heiton (junior), John Murray Robertson, and Thomas Arthur Heiton. The building was classified under the category of "Castle" and is a Historic Scotland 'B Listed' building. ^[12]

Giffen house had been completed for about 50 years, when the owner, Mr. Patrick, died in August 1922, leaving the Estate to a nephew in Edinburgh. The nephew sold the estate, which extended to about 885½ acres, chiefly arable and enclosed land, but it included about 54½ acres of woodland and wooded policies. It contained 4 public rooms, 6 family bedrooms, 3 dressing rooms, day and night nurseries, bathroom, 6 servants' bedrooms, and ample kitchen and domestic accommodation making 35 rooms in all. The offices included excellent stabling, garage, lodge, and coachman's house.

The Castletoun of Giffen

General Roy's survey of 1747 - 55 spells the name as 'Giffin' and indicates a cluster of buildings; a hamlet, on the southern side of the castle.

The Chapels and the Chapel Well

The chapel and well lay near to Giffen castle according to John Smith,^[13] however another chapel and well dedicated to St. Bridget existed at Trearne on a low hill, with an associated burial ground and a nook in which was set a carving of two figures, possibly a cat and a rabbit, measuring 25 inches (640 mm) by 15 inches (380 mm).^[14] The chapel ruins at Trearne were destroyed by quarrying in comparatively recent times. In the 12th-century, the Laird, William de Nenham had granted land to the monastery of Dryburgh and a chapel was built to the south-east of the castle, possibly next to the well which is still marked on the 2001 OS map, known locally as the Chapel Well.^[15] William's son Richard granted more land at this site, however his brother Alexander inherited and wished for his chapel to be held by the monastery of Kilwinning and not Dryburgh. To achieve this end he gave land for a site at Trearne, next to St. Bridget's chapel which had previously been granted to the Monks of Dryburgh.

The Barony chapel at Trearne was for the souls of Richard de Morville, William de Morville, Roland of Galloway, Elen de Morville and of their heirs, as well as that of Walter de Mulcaster, his ancestors and his successors.^[15] The chapel at Giffen was likely to have been for the same overlords or superiors, but also for Alexander de Nenham, his ancestors and his successors.

This situation of excambied^[9] or exchanged lands has led to some confusion in that three chapels appear to have existed at one time within the Lordship of Giffen, not two as is usually stated.^[16] The other chapel was in Beith.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Dobie, James (1876). Pont's Cunninghame topographized 1604-1608 with continuations and illustrative notices (1876). Pub. John Tweed. p. 164.
^ Robertson, George (1820). A Topographical Description of Ayrshire: More particularly of Cunninghame, etc .... Irvine : Cunninghame Press. p. 285.
^ Love, Dane (2005). Lost Ayrshire. Ayrshire's lost Architectural Heritage. Pub. Birlinn. ISBN 1-84158-356-1. p. 12 - 13.
^ Dobie, James (1876). Pont's Cunninghame topographized 1604-1608 with continuations and illustrative notices (1876). Pub. John Tweed. P. 85.
^ Millar, A.H. (1885) The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire. Reprinted by The Grimsay Press. 2000. ISBN 1-84530-019x. P.84 & 85.
^ ^a ^b Paterson, James (1863-66). History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. V. - III - Cunninghame. J. Stillie. Edinburgh. P.98.
^ ^a ^b Smith, John (1895). Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire. Pub. Elliot Stock. P. 83.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f A Guide to Local History Terminology
^ ^a ^b ^c A Guide to Local History Terminology
^ Dobie, James (1876). Pont's Cunninghame topographized 1604-1608 with continuations and illustrative notices (1876). Pub. John Tweed. P. 165.
^ ^a ^b ^c Millar, A.H. (1885) The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire. Reprinted by The Grimsay Press. 2000. ISBN 1-84530-019x. P.84 & 85.
^ Dictionary of Scottish Architects 2008
^ Smith, John (1895). Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire. Pub. Elliot Stock.
^ Reflections on Beith and District. On the wings of time. (1994). Pub. Beith High Church Youth Group. ISBN 0-9522720-0-8. p. 21.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dobie, James (1876). Pont's Cunninghame topographized 1604-1608 with continuations and illustrative notices (1876). Pub. John Tweed. p. 377.
^ Paterson, James (1863-66). History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton. V. - III - Cunninghame. J. Stillie. Edinburgh. p. 65.

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