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Hoddom Castle

This castle is in the Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Cummertress Parish.
Listed Building record on the Portal.

Description

The core of Hoddom Castle is a massively constructed large-scale mid-16th-century residential tower of L-shaped plan. It was rendered yet more imposing when the wing was heightened by an additional two storeys for the first Earl of Annandale in about 1636, who 'greatly improved and increased [the castle] with additional buildings'. The heightening carries the corner turrets upward where they have been roofed with high, conical roofs.

As originally built, the tower was of three principal storeys above a barrel-vaulted basement, and with a garret in the roof space. Up to second -floor level access between the floors is by a spiral stair within the wing, but above that level access is by a smaller spiral stair within the wall thickness at the junction of the main block and the wing. There was originally a single room at each level of the main block, but they were subdivided by a cross wall when the tower was incorporated within a later mansion.

The tower retains a number of highly interesting architectural details, including projecting machicolations at the wall head, fine fireplaces and imposing wide-mouthed gunloops. Of the other buildings once associated with the castle, and known of from early views, a round tower that originally stood at one corner of the main courtyard is the principal survivor. The other buildings were destroyed when the castle was enormously extended to create a mansion of considerable architectural quality, parts of which have been retained to the east and north of the tower.

History

The castle was built in the years around 1565 for Sir John Maxwell of Terregles, Lord Herries; at the same time the small tower of Repentance was built on an adjacent hilltop, from where it commanded wide views over the surrounding countryside. Together they formed part of Maxwell's determined campaign to impose order on the West March of Scotland's border with England. The main focus of the castle was the massively constructed tower house, which was retained and adapted when the castle was progressively enlarged to form a very large mansion for the Sharpe and Brook families in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The castle ceased to be a residence in the 1930s when it became a youth hostel. Much of the mansion was demolished between the 1950s and '70s, following neglect during wartime requisition, though parts have been retained to serve a modern caravan park adjacent to the castle.

Status

The castle is situated within the grounds of the Hoddom Castle Caravan Park, and parts of the later mansion have been retained to serve the caravan park. However, the medieval tower is unoccupied and it is now in a semi-ruinous condition. The owners of the castle are considering long-term proposals to bring more of it back into use.

Conservation Options

The tower is structurally complete and still roofed, but its external walls are extensively scarred where the later ranges have been removed. Internally it was subdivided and modified when it was absorbed into the mansion. The tower is sufficiently complete for it to be restored with a high level of authenticity. However, it is a very large structure with extremely thick walls. This and its later alterations could present challenges for a scheme of adaptive re-use.

Bibliography

J Gifford, The Buildings of Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway, London, 1966, pp 342-6

D MacGibbon and T Ross, The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, Edinburgh, vol 2, 1887, pp 137-9

A M T Maxwell-Irving, 'Hoddom Castle: a reappraisal of its architecture and place in history', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol 117, 1988, pp 183-217

A M T Maxwell-Irving, The Border towers of Scotland: their history and architecture: the West March, 2000, pp

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Dumfries, Edinburgh, 1920, pp 38-40

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Eastern Dumfriesshire: an archaeological landscape, Edinburgh, 1997, pp 195, 252, 312, no 1303

G Stell, 'Castles and towers of south-western Scotland: some recent surveys', Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 3rd series, vol 57, 1982, pp 70-1

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