Castle of St John Stranraer

It's Wednesday the 8th of June 2011,and I've arrived in Stranraer quite early for a dental appointment.
Time then for a visit to the recently refurbished Castle of St John.
Castle of St John Visitor Centre

Information in italics is by courtesy of Rampant Scotland.

The Castle of St John was built around 1510 in what was later to become Stranraer - it is sometimes called Stranraer Castle. This small town overlooks Loch Ryan on the west of Dumfries and Galloway, although before the reorganisation of local government in Scotland, Stranraer was in Wigtownshire.

A nice bright colourful sign welcomes you.

The above distorted picture is the result of me stitching three pictures together.

I couldn't exactly decipher the writing on the wall outside.

The ground floor was originally two cellars.
One now serves as an information centre and office.

I'm given a wonderful welcome by two helpful young ladies, Kay and Shirley.

The sign says this cellar has hardly changed from the 1500's.
(Click on the pictures to read the boards)

It's a wonderful spiral staircase that takes you upwards.It's bright and well lit,they've done a sterling job on the refurbishment.


The land on which it was built was owned by a family called Adair. They were probably of Irish origin (Northern Ireland is only 40 miles away as the crow flies) and they held lands around Portpatrick to the west in the early 1300s. There is even a legend that they were allocated the area by King Robert the Bruce for getting rid of the previous occupants - the Curries - who were notorious pirates. Like all successful families in those days, they expanded their territory and acquired the lands on which the Castle of St John now stands by 1484. Initially, they built a chapel dedicated to St John and it was not until around 1510 that they built a castle which was known variously as the Place of St John and Castle of Chapel.

It always amazes me when looking round old houses and castles just how small servants passageways and quarters were in days of old.Surely they weren't all small people.

Just below the hall is the servants waiting room.

Now on the first floor I'm in the castles main room,the hall.A televised presentation is on.

As well as the comprehensive information boards,there are other exhibits in here.

A model castle and a model Stranraer show how the castle was surrounded by buildings until the 1970's

When the Burgh of Stranraer was created in 1595, its Charter specifically excluded the castle and grounds - but in favour of an Elizabeth Kennedy. Indeed, from 1600 onwards the Adairs concentrated on their lands in Ireland. The Castle of St John remained part of the Kennedy's estates until 1670 - at which point it was taken over by the Dalrymples of Stair. Sir James Dalrymple of Stair also obtained Castle Kennedy itself around the same time. 

Blocked off servant's staircases.....

....and the loo!

So onwards and upwards.....

to the second floor...... An information board showing the castle in 1550 and 1820.

In the 18th century the castle was little used and in 1815 it was purchased with a view to it becoming the jail for the area. In the following years it served that purpose - but gained a reputation for allowing too many prisoners to escape. Not that the building was insecure - but the jailers were often drunk and left the doors open!
It continued in the role of prison until 1907. By that time it was surrounded by the shops and offices of a modern small town. In the 1960s, buildings surrounding the Castle of St John were demolished, leaving only the main tower - which was restored and became a museum and visitor attraction in 1988/89. The illustrations of Covenanters and their flags were taken inside the castle. 

Victorian graffiti around the fireplace.

Now an information board tells us of some of the prisoners during it's life as the burgh nick.

I didn't know until curiosity got the better of me that you can now find records of  those transported between 1787 and 1867 freely on the internet.
Joseph Allison was one of 320 convicts shipped out on the John Barry on the 12th of November 1838.

There are a great many McCulloch's around Wigtownshire.

Below,the cell doors look original.

Still on the second floor I add my little touch to the graffiti board.Family readers will no doubt notice my contribution.

An interactive cell on this floor allows you to listen to voices from the past,build a tower,a two sided jigsaw and a spinning identikit.

I've worked on a few boring production lines in my lifetime,but have never done any Oakum Picking.Thank goodness !

Towards the end of the 17th century, the Castle of St John was used by the government to garrison troops who were trying to suppress the Covenanters, a religious movement that wanted to maintain the Presbyterian form of worship, where control was devolved to the individual church parishes. Although the government at that time was still in Edinburgh (the Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England did not occur until 1707), King Charles I in London was trying to impose an episcopal system on both countries - with himself at its head and governing from the top down. Charles I lost his head in the Civil War and his son, King Charles II, was defeated at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 and had to flee. But King Charles II was restored in 1660 and soon resumed the efforts to impose an episcopal form of worship which the Covenanters resisted. In 1678, John Graham of Claverhouse (known as "Bonnie Dundee" or "Bloody Clavers" depending on which side you were on) was based at the Castle of St John while in command of troops in the south west, savagely suppressing the local Covenanters. 

Now the last of the spiral staircase takes me up to the crenelated parapet of the castle.

As well as the information boards pointing out historical sites around Stranraer,there are some wonderful views from up here.
Out beyond the mouth of Loch Ryan,Ailsa Craig is bathed in sunshine.

I'll take a little bit of video on my way down.

A look at the guest book shows a good many visitors from the south and abroad with only a few local names.
C'mon you Gallovidians get a look at your own history.

A cheerio to Kay concludes my visit.

It's an excellent A1 attraction and I'd certainly recommend a visit.

Road to recovery-Lady's Linn waterfall

I decided today would be a good day to do a little walking to see how well my calf muscle was recovering.With walking boots on and with no clear plan,i headed off in the car.
I decided to take a run up Bargaly Glen for a start.Just beyond Craignine while opening a gate i was regarded with some suspicion by some of the locals.

Looking up towards Cairnsmore there's still a bit of snow up there.
Back on to the Newton Stewart New Galloway road i then took the back road towards Cumloden.


Some lovely views of the Galloway Hills along here.I love the contrast of the gorse and the snow.
I then headed along the Auchinleck road,following the Penkiln Burn.

Stopping at Auchinleck Bridge and with this view behind me i started my walk.

Having looked at my Ordnance Survey map the plan was to find a waterfall called Lady's Linn.
There was a fairly good track to follow,but i did have to negotiate a couple of small streams flowing into the burn.

It wasn't long before i found it,but i had to climb over a drystone wall to get to it.There was an extra wide stone in the wall which i presume was put in for climbing over purposes.


These lovely primroses were growing along the bank.
Now back up the bank i'm looking for anything that looks like ruins.
In particular remains of Old Risk Castle.

Looking at the layout and the boulder piles it's obvious there's been something fairly substantial here at one time.
(Looking for info on the internet,i came across this web page,
http://www.strathearn.com/clan-murdoch/mu_history8.html ,
which shows the link between the Murdochs of Old Risk Castle and Robert the Bruce-a picture now forms in my mind.)

This is one of the views they'd have had from the castle.
After a good tramp around the hills i started making my way back to the car park.
My leg's standing up to the walk,i think i'll soon be ready for a Wigtownshire Ramble.
N.B.Roaming around these hills i'm in awe at the thought of the history beneath my feet-maybe i should get a metal detector.

St Ninians Cave

Yesterday,Thursday the 7th of February 2008,I set off to walk down to St Ninians Cave at Glasserton in the Machars.I'd promised myself i'd come back after seeing it from a distance on the last Ramblers outing.
On the path heading down Physgill glen,the snowdrops were in full bloom.Scotland has an abundance of snowdrops and have a snowdrop festival every year.More info on that can be found at
http://white.visitscotland.com/snowdrop-festival/.
Here's just a few.

Further on was this lovely little bridge,although there looked to be nearly as much water running over it as under it.

Still on the way down i spotted this lovely waterfall.Our waterfalls here in Galloway may not be the most spectacular,but they're without doubt very scenic.

The walk from the car park is a mile long and i finally made it to the shoreline.
The tide was well in and the surf was in fine form as can be seen by these pictures.

A stony walk along the shore and i reach the cave.

This plaque just outside the cave reads as follows.
This cave is by tradition the retreat of St.Ninian,who brought Christianity to Scotland in the mid 5th century.He was said to travel the few miles from his church at Whithorn to be alone here with his thoughts and his prayer.If he did regularly leave his busy church for private contemplation he would be following the examples of many of the holy men in the early church.
It is impossible to know whether St.Ninian actually used the cave,but it was certainly visited by pilgrims to the shrine of St.Ninian at Whithorn for many centuries.
Excavations in 1884 and in 1950 showed that the cave was in use from the eighth century.The pilgrims left stone crosses,some carved straight onto the walls of the cave and others cut onto free-standing stones.The latter are on display in Whithorn Priory Museum.The seven crosses on the walls are done in the same way as the crosses on early Christian memorial stones,pecked into the surface of the rock.The earliest of these may predate the Northumbrian conquest of Galloway,sometime before 731.

I see evidence of recent pilgrims by these marked stones and fashioned crosses.

The cave is smaller than i imagined it would be,but even so there are a lot of carvings/names on the walls.Looking closely there are carvings and names dating back centuries.A lot of the names/carvings have become merged which makes it difficult to make out.Here's a few i photographed.





I'd taken quite a bit of film on this visit.I find it hard to believe but i somehow managed to delete every last bit of footage.YouTube will now have to wait a little bit longer for a St.Ninians feature.
Nevertheless i had a very enjoyable and interesting afternoon.