Cardoness Castle
By Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway
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All images are © 400photos.uk
Cardoness Castle is on the outskirts of Gatehouse of Fleet right beside the A75 which runs between Stranraer,
Dumfries and Gretna, and can be seen in the photos.
The last photo, looking north/upstream, shows the Water of Fleet as it passes the castle a short distance from the Solway Firth. That straight section of the river is known as The Canal and is probably a man-made channel.
Built in the late 1400s as a fortified home for the McCulloch's it's a five-storey tower house which had added fortifications round the base. The McCullochs were, by all accounts, a bad lot and when they lost the castle to the Gordon family in the 1600s (due to bad debt) they responded by one of them murdering the new owner.
This castle is built along the same lines as Threave Castle (linked to below), which is around ten miles to the north-east though Cardoness is on a much smaller scale.
It's in the hands of Historic Scotland, parking is free but it looks tricky for disabled access.
The last photo, looking north/upstream, shows the Water of Fleet as it passes the castle a short distance from the Solway Firth. That straight section of the river is known as The Canal and is probably a man-made channel.
Built in the late 1400s as a fortified home for the McCulloch's it's a five-storey tower house which had added fortifications round the base. The McCullochs were, by all accounts, a bad lot and when they lost the castle to the Gordon family in the 1600s (due to bad debt) they responded by one of them murdering the new owner.
This castle is built along the same lines as Threave Castle (linked to below), which is around ten miles to the north-east though Cardoness is on a much smaller scale.
It's in the hands of Historic Scotland, parking is free but it looks tricky for disabled access.
