Alternative Names Mortoun Castle; Morton Loch
Site type CASTLE
Canmore ID 65143
Site Number NX89NE 10
NGR NX 8908 9920
Council DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY
Parish MORTON
Former Region DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY
Former District NITHSDALE
Former County DUMFRIES-SHIRE

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Archaeological Notes

NX89NE 10 8908 9920.

(NX 8908 9920) Morton Castle (NR) (Remains of)
OS 6" map (1957)

Morton Castle is a good example of a hall-house, built at the turn of the 13th-14th centuries" (J G Dunbar 1966), built about 1260-70 and occupied until 1715 (A E Truckell and J Williams 1967).
It stands on a triangular promontory defended on two sides by Morton Loch, and to the S doubtless by a ditch, now filled in. It consists of a ruinous oblong block, with a gatehouse at the SW, and a circular tower at the SE corners.
Fragments of 13th c tiles are in Dumfries Museum. "The interior of the castle was cleared by the Duke of Buccleuch; nothing of importance was found (C T Ramage 1876).
RCAHMS 1920, visited 1919; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887; J Williams 1967, 1968; A E Truckell and J Williams 1972

Dunegal, the Lord of Nithsdale in the 12th c, is supposed to have had a castle here.
The well preserved remains of Morton Castle (name verified) comprise a trapezoidal-shaped roofless building measuring internally 34.0m by 9.9m with walling surviving up to 8.0m high. The north, east and south walls are all 2.2m thick whilst the west wall is 0.7m. There are the remains of a circular tower in the south east corner and part of the gatehouse on the south west corner. The foundations of the west half of the gate- house and the west wall of the castle can still be traced but there is no evidence of the external north wall shown on plan.
It is approached from the south by a terraced trackway which crosses a deep, apparently natural ditch (across the neck of the promontory) by an earthen causeway.
Surveyed at 1:2500. Photographed by the RCAHM in 1980.
Visited by OS (TRG) 31 August 1977

Tile in Dumfries Museum (1972/63-4)
Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc 1972

Architectural Notes

See NMRS Survey of Private Collection Inventory to the Buccleuch drawings (Drumlanrig) in NMRS library.

Campbell, J (1984) The Aerofilms book of Scotland from the air, London
Page(s): 154 154 Held at RCAHMS F.2.1.CAM

Dunbar, J G (1966) The historic architecture of Scotland, London
Page(s): 33-4 Held at RCAHMS F.2.1.DUN

Grose, F (1789-91) The antiquities of Scotland, 2v London
Held at RCAHMS D.20.GRO.R