Maybole Castle

Maybole Castle - Photo © Mary and Angus Hogg, 22 Aug. 09

Maybole Castle, South Ayrshire - "The Countess's Window" Photo © Mary and Angus Hogg, 22 August 2009

Maybole Castle - Photo © Mary and Angus Hogg, 22 Aug. 09

Dating from the early 17th century, Maybole Castle was built as the town house of the 6th Earl of Cassillis and still belongs to the Kennedy family. The present castle is all that remains of a much larger building and grounds. Space was needed to improve the main road through the town in the 19th century. The castle is open to the public on specific dates during the summer months, with tours led by members of the Maybole Historical Society.

The little oriel window on the top floor is known as "The Countess's Window", well-known in Maybole for being the place where a Countess of Cassillis was imprisoned by her husband for running away with the gypsies.

This little window on the tower of Maybole Castle overlooks the High Street. The carved figures represent a band of gypsies. The Countess of Cassillis was imprisoned here for life by her husband, the Earl of Cassillis, for eloping with her former lover. He was known as Johnnie Faa, the King of the Gypsies. The Countess passed the time by working the story of her flight in tapestry.

Cassillis House

Located close to the River Doon, near Dalrymple, Cassillis House is the setting for the famous ballad "Johnnie Faa". Before her marriage to the powerful chief of the Kennedys, the countess had loved a young knight, Sir John Fall. She eloped with him, disguised as the gypsy, "Johnnie Faa". The Earl brought them back and made her watch the gypsy band and her disguised lover being hanged from the Dule Tree in front of Cassillis House. The Earl imprisoned the Countess for life in his town house, Maybole Castle. He then divorced her and remarried.

MAYBOLE CASTLE, AYRSHIRE.

During the sixteenth century this edifice was the "town house" of the Earl of Cassillis. Maybole was the capital of the district of Carrick, of which the earl was the hereditary chief; and here, says Abercrummie (the Episcopalian minister of "Minibole," "outed" at the Revolution), "have been many pretty buildings belonging to the severall gentry of the countrey, who were wont to resort thither in winter, and divert themselves in converse together at their owne houses. ... It hath one principall street, with houses on both sydes built of freestone, and it is beautifyed with the situation of two castles, one at each end of this street. That on the east belongs to the Earle of Cassillis; beyond which, eastward, stands a great new building, which be his granaries. On the West end is a castle, which belonged sometime to the Laird of Blairquhan, which is now the Tolbuith, and is adorned with a pyramide, and a row of ballesters round it, raised upon the top of the stairecase, into which they have mounted a fyne clock."

Besides these, tradition preserves the names of several other town residences of the Lairds of Carrick, such as "the black house" of the Kennedies of Knockdone; the mansions of Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean; of Kennedy of Ballimore; the "White Horse Inn," formerly belonging to the Lairds of Kilhenzie; the "Garden of Eden," the residence of the abbots of Crosraguel, and the house where Abbot Quentin Kennedy and John Knox held their celebrated conference.

Maybole also possessed a collegiate church, with a rector and three prebends. The ruins of the church, a late Gothic structure, are still in fair preservation, and have been used as the burial place of the Earls of Cassillis and others.

This little town, which stands on a hillside sloping to the south, about nine miles south from Ayr, may, from the above description and its actual condition, be cited as a good example of the local centres or provincial county towns of the period. Such centres were in those days, when roads were bad and travelling dangerous, much more numerous than now, when travelling is easy and rapid; but few have preserved their pristine features so little altered as Maybole. Here we still find the castle of the Lord of the Bailiery standing guard at the east end, and that of the Laird of Blairquhan at the west end of the main street (although the town has extended beyond them), while the ruins of the College Kirk nestle quietly in the centre. A few old houses are also still traceable here and there, but they are fast disappearing.

Its south gable fronts the principal street. The plan is of the simple quadrilateral form, with a square projection at the south-west angle containing the principal stair, which ascends to near the top, where the turret is corbelled out in the usual manner and formed into a handsome prospect room, with a bow window to the west. The entrance from the street was doubtless on the west side of the castle, where a gate-way in a high wall would lead into a paved courtyard. From this the principal doorway opened into the castle in the re-entering angle of the turret; but this part of the building is now concealed by modern additions. The basement is vaulted, and the first floor contained the hall, which was 31 feet by 18 feet, but is now somewhat altered. It is lighted by two large windows to the east, overlooking the garden, and one to the south fronting the street, and there have also been two windows on the west side. The windows have probably been enlarged. The walls are 4 feet in thickness. The upper floors contain the usual bedrooms, with dressing-closets in the angle turrets. As above remarked, the top story of the staircase turret is a very pleasant and cheerful room. The wooden panelling of the walls still remains, and a deep arched alcove contains the picturesque bow window. This is one of the few examples in our Scottish edifices of that charming feature of English architecture, and, together with the large size of the angle turrets, the ornamental and remarkable form of the dormers, and the enriched chimney-heads, clearly point to a late date probably about the same as Huntly Castle, or the first quarter of the seventeenth century. At the commencement of that century the earldom was possessed by John, fifth earl, who was much engaged in local feuds in Ayrshire and Galloway, including that in which the young Laird of Bargany was slain. He died in 1615, and was succeeded by his nephew, John, sixth earl, eldest son of Gilbert, Master of Cassillis. He was a person of virtue and distinction, and rose to be President of the Court. In 1649 lie was sent by the Estates to confer with Charles II. in Holland, and at the Restoration was appointed Extraordinary Lord of Session. His death occurred in 1668. From his date and character, it is almost certain that we owe the fine work at Maybole and the restoration at Cassillis to this earl. The castle of May bole has been enlarged in recent years, and is now occupied by Lord Ailsa's factor.

Of the town house of the Laird of Blairquhan, above described by Abercrummie, little now remains beyond the staircase tower, with its "pyramide" raised upon the top, and the "fyne clock." The top story, with the pointed and cusped windows, was probably added late in the seventeenth century, and, from Abercrummie's account, it seems then to have had a parapet, with "a row of ballesters round it." The battlement we now see is of comparatively recent origin, and the structure has otherwise undergone so many alterations that little of the original is left. The tower, however, forms one of a series of Scottish tolbooth, or town-hall steeples and is thus of considerable interest.

Reference

The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland by David Macgibbon and Thomas Ross, 1889