Lochmaben
Encyclopedia
Lochmaben is a small town in Scotland
, and site of a once-important castle. It lies four miles west of Lockerbie
, in Dumfries and Galloway
.
", an ancient Brythonic god
, as the Roman
name of the area was Locus Maponi, according to the Ravenna Cosmography
. It has been inhabited since earliest times due to its strategic position on the routes from England
to Scotland and Ireland
, to the small lochs surrounding it and to the relatively fertile soil in the area. The first inhabitants may have lived in crannog
s in the lochs.
After the Roman departure the area around Dumfries
the locale had various forms of visit by Picts
, Saxons
, Scots
and Danes
culminating in a decisive victory for Giric mac Dúngail (Modern Gaelic
: Griogair mac Dhunghail, known in English simply as Giric, and nicknamed Mac Rath, ("Son of Fortune"); fl.
c.
878–889) was a king of the Picts or the king of Alba at what is now Lochmaben over the native Britons
in 890.
de Brus (Bruce) family, had become the Lords of Annandale
. Robert de Brus
Lord of Skelton in the Cleveland area of Yorkshire
, was a notable figure at the court of King Henry I of England
, where he became intimate with Prince David of Scotland, that monarch's brother-in-law. When the Prince became King David I of Scotland
, in 1124, Bruce obtained from him the Lordship of Annandale, and great possessions in the south of Scotland. (de Brus was nevertheless buried at Guisborough
, the place of his birth).
, at Lochmaben, the remains of which now lie under a golf course. It is claimed that King Robert I of Scotland
(Bruce) was born there, which is why the town adopted the motto "From us is born the liberator king" (in Latin
) on its coat of arms. However this claim is relatively late, it cannot be ruled out, but his birthplace was more likely Turnberry Castle
. Bruce certainly battled the English over this area during the Wars of Scottish Independence
.
King Edward replaced the castle with a much sturdier structure at the south end of Castle Loch around 1300 and its remains still show the massive strength of its defences. Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway, with the assistance of the Earls of March and Douglas, after a siege of nine days, took Lochmaben Castle from the English and "razed it to the ground" on 4 February 1384/5. The castle and barony became a possession of the Earls of March, but when the 10th Earl was forfeited and then reinstated, in 1409, it is noted that it was "with the exception of the castle of Lochmaben and the Lordship of Annandale."
The Battle of Lochmaben Fair
was fought on 22 July 1484: a force of 500 light horsemen led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas
invaded Scotland, but were defeated.
On 16 January 1508/9, at Edinburgh, Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass (d.1517/8), knight, was appointed "Captain and Keeper of the King's castle and fort of Lochmaben, with all pertinentes" and other privileges etc., for three years.
Lochmaben remained important and had a turbulent history until after 1600 by which time the castle had seen its last siege and was gradually abandoned.
in 1447, and a Royal Charter
in 1579. Its importance waned with the peace that was became the norm, but it had sufficient resources to build a substantial Tolbooth
(later the Town Hall) in 1723. The town is well found with a broad main street and the town is set in rolling countryside. The railway came in 1863, with Lochmaben a stop on the Dumfries to Lockerbie line
, and brought easy communication both north and south. It closed to passengers in 1952 and to freight in 1966.
There is also a doctors surgery.
The town has suffered genteel poverty in past times but it now prospers on a mix of agriculture, light industry and tourism with significant numbers commuting the short distance to Dumfries.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and site of a once-important castle. It lies four miles west of Lockerbie
Lockerbie
Lockerbie is a town in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. It lies approximately from Glasgow, and from the English border. It had a population of 4,009 at the 2001 census...
, in Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...
.
Notable people
- Angus DouglasAngus DouglasAngus Douglas was a Scottish international footballer who played for Chelsea and Newcastle United....
- Scottish internationalist footballer - Maitland PollockMaitland PollockMaitland Pollock is a Scottish former professional association footballer. He was born in Dumfries in 1952 and grew up in Lochmaben.Pollock was a winger who after serving as an apprentice started his senior career with Nottingham Forest in the era in the likes of Neil Martin...
- professional footballer
Early inhabitants
The name Loch Mhabain is possibly a corruption of Loch Mhaol Bheinn ("Lake on the bare mountain"), or may mean "Loch of MabonMabon
Mabon may refer to:*Mabon , the Autumnal equinox in some versions of the Wheel of the Year*Mabyn or Mabon, an early Cornish saint*Mabon ap Modron, a figure in Welsh Arthurian legend-People with the name:...
", an ancient Brythonic god
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
, as the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
name of the area was Locus Maponi, according to the Ravenna Cosmography
Ravenna Cosmography
The Ravenna Cosmography was compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around AD 700. It consists of a list of place-names covering the world from India to Ireland. Textual evidence indicates that the author frequently used maps as his source....
. It has been inhabited since earliest times due to its strategic position on the routes from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Scotland and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, to the small lochs surrounding it and to the relatively fertile soil in the area. The first inhabitants may have lived in crannog
Crannog
A crannog is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters of Scotland and Ireland. Crannogs were used as dwellings over five millennia from the European Neolithic Period, to as late as the 17th/early 18th century although in Scotland,...
s in the lochs.
After the Roman departure the area around Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
the locale had various forms of visit by Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
, Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
, Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
and Danes
Danes
Danish people or Danes are the nation and ethnic group that is native to Denmark, and who speak Danish.The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century...
culminating in a decisive victory for Giric mac Dúngail (Modern Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
: Griogair mac Dhunghail, known in English simply as Giric, and nicknamed Mac Rath, ("Son of Fortune"); fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
c.
Circa
Circa , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
878–889) was a king of the Picts or the king of Alba at what is now Lochmaben over the native Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
in 890.
Lords of Annandale
By 1160, the Anglo-NormanAnglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
de Brus (Bruce) family, had become the Lords of Annandale
Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway
Annandale is a strath in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, named after the River Annan. It runs north-south through the Southern Uplands from Annanhead to Annan on the Solway Firth and in its higher reaches it separates the Moffat hills on the east from the Lowther hills to the west...
. Robert de Brus
Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale
Robert I de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale was an early 12th century Norman baron and knight, the first of the Bruce dynasty of Scotland and England...
Lord of Skelton in the Cleveland area of Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, was a notable figure at the court of King Henry I of England
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
, where he became intimate with Prince David of Scotland, that monarch's brother-in-law. When the Prince became King David I of Scotland
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
, in 1124, Bruce obtained from him the Lordship of Annandale, and great possessions in the south of Scotland. (de Brus was nevertheless buried at Guisborough
Guisborough
Guisborough is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England....
, the place of his birth).
Castles and battles
At some point in the 13th century the Bruces built a castle, probably a KeepKeep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
, at Lochmaben, the remains of which now lie under a golf course. It is claimed that King Robert I of Scotland
Robert I of Scotland
Robert I , popularly known as Robert the Bruce , was King of Scots from March 25, 1306, until his death in 1329.His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage , and...
(Bruce) was born there, which is why the town adopted the motto "From us is born the liberator king" (in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
) on its coat of arms. However this claim is relatively late, it cannot be ruled out, but his birthplace was more likely Turnberry Castle
Turnberry Castle
Turnberry Castle is a fragmentary ruin on the coast of Kirkoswald parish, north of Girvan in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is situated on a rock at the extremity of the lower peninsula within the parish.-History:...
. Bruce certainly battled the English over this area during the Wars of Scottish Independence
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....
.
King Edward replaced the castle with a much sturdier structure at the south end of Castle Loch around 1300 and its remains still show the massive strength of its defences. Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway, with the assistance of the Earls of March and Douglas, after a siege of nine days, took Lochmaben Castle from the English and "razed it to the ground" on 4 February 1384/5. The castle and barony became a possession of the Earls of March, but when the 10th Earl was forfeited and then reinstated, in 1409, it is noted that it was "with the exception of the castle of Lochmaben and the Lordship of Annandale."
The Battle of Lochmaben Fair
Battle of Lochmaben Fair
The Battle of Lochmaben Fair was an engagement in Lochmaben, Scotland, on 22 July 1484 between Scottish loyalists to James III of Scotland and the rebels Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, leading cavalry from England...
was fought on 22 July 1484: a force of 500 light horsemen led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas
James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas
James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, 3rd Earl of Avondale KG was a Scottish nobleman, last of the 'Black' earls of Douglas. He was a twin, the older by a few minutes, the younger was Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray....
invaded Scotland, but were defeated.
On 16 January 1508/9, at Edinburgh, Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass (d.1517/8), knight, was appointed "Captain and Keeper of the King's castle and fort of Lochmaben, with all pertinentes" and other privileges etc., for three years.
Lochmaben remained important and had a turbulent history until after 1600 by which time the castle had seen its last siege and was gradually abandoned.
Town
The town had prospered and become a Royal BurghRoyal burgh
A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....
in 1447, and a Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
in 1579. Its importance waned with the peace that was became the norm, but it had sufficient resources to build a substantial Tolbooth
Tolbooth
Tolbooth or tollbooth may refer to:* Tolbooth, a traditional Scottish 'town hall' for the administration of burghs, usually providing a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail.* Toll house, a place where road usage tolls are collected...
(later the Town Hall) in 1723. The town is well found with a broad main street and the town is set in rolling countryside. The railway came in 1863, with Lochmaben a stop on the Dumfries to Lockerbie line
Dumfries, Lochmaben and Lockerbie Railway
Dumfries, Lochmaben and Lockerbie Railway was a railway in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. It connected Dumfries with Lockerbie. It is now closed.-History:...
, and brought easy communication both north and south. It closed to passengers in 1952 and to freight in 1966.
Healthcare
Lochmaben Hospital was opened in 1905 as an infectious diseases hospital but, with the virtual demise of these diseases, it is now a modern 16 bed community facility caring for both physical and psychiatric problems.There is also a doctors surgery.
Education
Lochmaben Primary School is one of the largest in Annandale. The school moved to newer more modern premises in 1982.Recreation
It also has an 18 hole golf course surrounding the Kirk loch on the edge of the town. Lochmaben has 3 main lochs: Kirk Loch, Castle Loch and the Mill Loch.It also has 2 smaller lochs: The Blind Loch and the Upper Loch. The town’s lochs thrive with both sailing and fishing taking place throughout the year. In some years in winters of prolonged frost curling has taken place on the frozen lochs, most notable is the Kirk Loch.Business
There are 2 convenience stores at each end of the town. Several successful businesses are also in the town and the town is once again thriving with many houses planned to be built over the next ten years. There is also a Post Office and a Bank on the main street.The town has suffered genteel poverty in past times but it now prospers on a mix of agriculture, light industry and tourism with significant numbers commuting the short distance to Dumfries.