On a walk in Dumfries & Galloway in January 2023, my wife and I had a quick look at a clearance cairn on a small hill in an old field system. There was an obvious broken stone slab, with very clearly incised, formal lettering saying ‘W Ewing March 31 1801.’ On looking carefully through the cairn material, we came across at least five other stones that had carved names, letters and dates on them. These were much more akin to grafitti than formal lettering. The stone here has many characters carved upon it, plus three clear dates of 1799. The other stones seemed to be eighteenth century, with the oldest date being 1765.
Checking out Canmore and Pastmap, revealed that about half a mile away had been a castle, called Manor Castle. In the 1870s there were some ruins and large timbers were recovered from these. At the turn of the C20th, there were still some ruins but when the RCHAMS visited in the1970s, nothing remained. So it looks like we have discovered traces of the lost castle!
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