Lochore Castle, Fife - Photo ©
Edward McMaihin, 11 December 2009
Lochore Castle, Fife - Photo ©
Edward McMaihin, 11 December
2009
Lochore castle or known by its other name Inchgall (Isle of strangers)
was originally surrounded by water when it was built in 1160 the ruins which
are now seen are of a 14th century replacement which rose to four storeys with
a courtyard and round corner towers. In the middle of the 16th century, the
invading English forces regarded Lochore as one of the four strongest castles
in Fife.
LOCH ORE CASTLE, FIFESHIRE.
This somewhat remarkable structure is situated about one mile north from Lochgelly Railway Station, in the parish of Ballingry. The castle stood on an island about 100 paces distant from the south-east edge of Loch Ore, which formerly extended about one and a half miles in length by a quarter of a mile in breadth, but is now drained. The island rose above the water to a height of about 10 feet, and extended outside the walls an average distance of 8 paces.
The castle consists of a central keep, surrounded by an enclosing wall. The latter is of a rudely oval form on Plan, and measures from east to west, along the greatest diameter, about 124 feet, and 104 from north to south. The castle was apparently approached from the east, along a causeway which is reported to have been in existence some years ago. The main entrance through the enclosing wall was in the west side, or on the opposite side from the approach. The bar-hole in one side of the gateway is still visible, and in the view of the castle in Grose's Antiquities, the gateway is shown, round arched and entire, in this position. Parties approaching the castle would thus have to traverse the circuit of the island before gaining admittance, and from the nature of the ground outside the walls, the access would be naturally by the north side, which is commanded by a projecting round tower at the north-east corner of the enclosing wall. This is the only tower attached to the wall. It has three loopholes, 2 inches wide and 2 feet 2 inches high, of the form shown on Fig. 176. There was a postern adjoining the round tower, and commanded by it. This postern is shown in Cardonnel's Antiquities of Scotland as having a round arch with a defence on the top of the wall projected on corbels.
The keep, which is almost square on Plan, occupies the centre of the enclosure. It measures about 34 feet by 35 feet 6 inches. None of the floors were vaulted. The ground floor is entirely buried beneath the ruins and cannot be seen. The first floor is the one shown on the Plan. The entrance to the ground floor is on the west side adjoining the north wall. There is also a doorway to the first floor on the same side at the south end, leading directly into the keep, and passing, strangely enough, through the arched fireplace, which occupies the whole west end of the keep. This entrance has a bar-hole. There are no traces of a stair between the first floor and ground floor, nor from the first floor to the floor above, so that these were probably of timber; but from the second floor to the battlements a stair runs up in the thickness of the south wall. It entered on the second floor through a pointed doorway; adjoining this is an opening into the flue of the fire-place beneath, which does not appear to have been screened off with a stone partition, although there may have been one of timber ; but taken in connection with the fact that there is only one fireplace in the keep, this flue may have been left open on this side so as to give the second floor the benefit of whatever heat could be got in that way. Or there may have been a door at this point into the vent, which was possibly used as a place for curing hams, &c., as in some other instances, such as Elphinstone. There was a third floor partly in the roof.
To the north and west of the keep buildings existed, extending between the keep and the wall of enceinte, but nothing remains of them above 3 or 4 feet in height. That on the north side is shown by Cardonnel as terminating with a crow-stepped gable to the north. On the west front of the keep the raglet for the roof of a building is cut on the face of the wall.
On the east face of the keep, fronting the approach to the island, there has been some kind of projecting structure at the second floor level. A part of its projecting edge still exists, and seems to have been, in part at least, a garde-robe.
Complete ruin and desolation have overtaken Loch Ore Castle in the course of the nineteenth century. In the views by Cardonnel and Grose it is shown in a much more perfect condition. The walls of enceinte are represented as entire, and they remained so within the memory of persons now living, till the removal of the earth outside brought the greater part of them down. The total ruin of the whole wall and keep itself seems imminent unless means are promptly taken to avert it.
Great antiquity is claimed for this castle. Grose, Cardonnel, and others suppose it to have been built in the twelfth century by Duncan de Lochore. The estate was then doubtless in the hands of that proprietor, and seems to have remained in the possession of this family till, as Grose tells us, in the reign of Robert I., it fell to the son of a gentleman, Adam de Valloniis, who had married a daughter of the Barons of Lochor.
It continued in this family for a considerable time, and then came to Sir Andrew Wardlaw of Torry, who married the eldest daughter of D. Jacobus de Valloniis, in whose family it remained till the time of King Charles I." All the above authorities and the Old Statistical Account agree in saying that over the chief entry to the tower is inscribed " Robertus de Wardlaw." It is thus quite clear that he must have been the builder of the castle, probably during the fifteenth century.
THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND BY DAVID MACGIBBON AND THOMAS ROSS, 1889