First, I have to tell you this is willow's gig. My ancestral home is probably somewhere in the shadow of the Beckton Slagheap (once, the biggest in the world). willow, however, is of grander stock: you can read about it at her blog here:
However, as willow is situated in the USA, and Sorbie Tower of her ancestors is located not only in the country, but the very county I live in, it would be churlish not to visit it and grab some pictures.
So we drove out of Nithsdale, along the A75 to the Stewartry and then turned left for Wigtownshire. We found the small village of Sorbie, and about a mile out of the village, along a private road, lies Sorbie Tower. And boy, was it worth the drive!
Tower Houses, both intact and in varying states of decay, litter the landscape of Dumfries and Galloway. Sorbie was actually a little bit special - maybe it was the cold of the day and the wind, or perhaps the seeming isolation of its location - for it loomed at us just as these old buildings should, damaged yet defiant.
View of the Tower from the Motte.
The Tower itself is not the oldest structure at the site, and replaced an earlier fortification, possibly 12th Century. For there is a large, man-made mound (the motte) with basic foundations close to the Tower’s ruins.
A recent dig on the site produced french made pottery and coins dating from the time of Henry III of France. The Norman family the Viponts settled in the area during this time and this may well have been their first stronghold.
Two views of the motte
Some details of what may have surmounted it
And then you get to the Tower itself.
It is an L-shaped tower house that dates from around 1550, described as "a hybrid of the austere Scottish fortress and the French baronial house with turrets and crow-stepped gables."
Hurry up!
Of course, two small boys and the larger one were somewhat disappointed that we couldn't get in, for the front door was firmly padlocked and marked "DANGER". Mummy rather disappointed that at this point her camera battery ran out (sorry willow!). But we had a brilliant time examining the outside, and peering through every miniscule slit to see the mostly pitch-black interior.
That strange glint was shining in my husband's eye, as he suffers from a bizarre compulsion to scale ancient monuments (I still shudder about our visit to the region's premium castle, Caerlaverock, where he got 40 feet up an interior wall before I commanded him to descend for fear of our receiving a lifetime ban). Luckily, it stayed a glint, as just then two ladies appeared with a cocker spaniel, and the older, Barbour-clad, asked us if we'd like to see inside. Would we! For lo, she was the custodian, and so entry was gained with not a siege-engine in sight or one instance of illegal climbing.
So in we went, and went up the main stair first. Unusually for the time, it is of scale and platt design (no, I don't know what that means either). You arrive at the Great Hall, 27 feet long with the usual fireplace. The glories of the hall are overtaken by the fact that you can see all the other stories of the Tower too: no ceilings remain. Only the very upper windows retain their sandstone - for the Tower has been used for centuries as a handy builder's merchants, and virtually all of its good stone has been robbed. Still, it is a thing of beauty; hand-placed stone upon stone, this massive structure still speaks of the past and its people.
Access to the upper floors was by a spiral staircase, in the turret. The remnant of this is spectacular.
And then we went down to the ground level, and the two prison cells/store rooms (some debate here) were dark as the grave, as their window inlets were minuscule. The kitchen area, with the great fireplace, was light however, and you can stand under the 17 foot sandstone span of the fireplace and look up the chimney through the whole height of the Tower to the lowering sky above.
And we chatted with the custodian, and heard of the difficulties of preserving the Tower (70% of any grants awarded seems to go on architect's and planning application fees before any work gets started), the dialogues with Scottish Heritage (it is Grade 1 listed, which makes preservation, conservation and restoration a minefield) and the hopes for the future (a roof, eventually).
Sorbie Tower is the seat of the Hannays, so here's a bit of history:
"The area of Sorbie was first being acquired by Gillbert de Hannathe (or Hannay) in around 1300AD. By the time of the building, Hannays had seized control of a stretch of land including the Machairs (grasslands) of Galloway; at the time it was known as the Machairs of Hannay.
The tower was constructed during the reformation, a time of new found wealth as church land was being broken up and re-distributed. Alexander Ahanna commissioned the castle after the murder of his father, Patrick. The stronghold was to be a sanctuary for his own people and a weapon to subdue his neighbours, the Murrays of Broughton.
The Hannays were a clan quick to the fight and were well represented on the battle fields of Scotland, fighting in the Battle of Sauchieburn 1488, the Battle of Flodden 1513, the Battle of Solway Moss 1542 and the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547. The fortunes of the Hannays were seriously dented in the 17th and 18th centuries when the long running feud with the powerful Clan Murray resulted in the Hannays being outlawed. Also finding themselves on the wrong side of the Jacobite cause, several Hannay sons either through escape or transportation ended up in Virginia and North Carolina. There is a cave called ‘Hannah’s Cave’ in Blount County, Virginia, named after a John Hannay.
Many of the adventurous Sorbie Clan moved to Ireland, in particular Ulster where the surname Hannay is common.
Possibly the best known Hannay was James, the Dean of St Giles’ in Edinburgh who had the claim to fame of being the target of an old woman's stool. In the infamous incident of 1637, Dean Hannay had began to read the liturgy from the controversial new Anglican bible when a stool came flying from the congregation, thrown by an incensed Jenny Geddes. The incident started a full scale riot and Dean Hannay could be described as the first casualty of the British Civil War.
Clan Chief Sir Samuel Hannay (died 1841) returned to Scotland having amassed a considerable wealth overseas and built a great mansion house at Kirkdale which was said to be the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Guy Mannering. From this point onwards, Hannays were linked to Kirkdale, Sorbie having been abandoned after 1745.
In 1965 the ruined tower was handed over to the Hannah Clan trust for its preservation."
Courtesy of this very nice site: http://www.castlescotland.net/index.html
So I leave you with the brooding, magnificent, Sorbie Tower.
With thanks to willow for making me go there.
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