Note 561 — Chapter V

This is probably an error. There is no record that David I. had any castles in Galloway; and the chronicles seem to show that at this period his principal residences were at Roxburgh and Carlisle. The narrative suggests that the castle referred to was in the immediate neighbourhood of Cruggleton (p. 78, n. 1), and it was probably the predecessor of that of which the scanty ruins—believed to be of thirteenth-century date—remain on the coast not far from the village. They are on a peninsula of such natural strength that we may suppose it was in very early times the site of a fortress (Fourth Report of Commission on Ancient Monuments in Scotland, vol. i. p. 144). Possibly, as has been suggested, David was there as the guest of Fergus, lord of Galloway (1124-1161), to whom, subsequently to the Battle of the Standard (August 22, 1138), and probably not long before this visit of Malachy, he had been reconciled after a long estrangement (Agnew, Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway, 1893. vol. i. p. 58).