of the place having been destroyed by fire, and in the Black Book (p. 100) we are told that in the Civil Wars of the years 1644 and 1645 the Laird of Glenurchy's whole lands were ravaged by the Royalist forces under the Marquis of Montrose, the whole cattle of the tenants taken away, and their "cornes, houses, plenisching and whole insight brunt." It is then added: "Notandum that John M'Nab fiar of Bowane, and Alexander M'Inlay M'Nab in Inschewine, with the whole of Clan Nab joynit with foresaid enemies and took in the yll of Loch Dochart, quhich y" of Loch Dochart was violently taken from them again in Anno 1646, and brunt throw their default." It is evident that after such a conflagration, which fused the roof-slates and reduced the floor to charcoal, little of the plenishing could remain. In the Great Hall beside the entrance we found the great iron lock and key, and at the adjoining window the iron-barred grating shown in fig. 6. In the hall we found several locks and keys, two odd spurs, a stirrup (fig. 7), a salmon spear, part of a bridle-bit, and part of a lock of a flint gun; an iron fire-dog (fig. 8) with a forked top and hooks at the side, an iron saddle-tree, four small horseshoes, a jug like the one found in the dungeon, and another (fig. 9) 9 inches in height but in fragments, which we pieced together; two saws, two axes (fig. 10), and a steel for striking a light with a flint (fig. 11). At the doorway to the private room and garderobe there was Fig. 11. Steel for striking light with a flint. a mass of door-plates, some with their nails still in them. Inside the room we found large fragments of a "greybeard," a pair of scissors (fig. 12), and eighty-seven small copper coins of Charles I., known as turners, or Scots twopenny pieces, with the initials, C.II.R. under a crown on the obverse, and the legend round the margin, CAR. D.G. SCOT. ANG. FR. ET. HIB. R., while on the reverse is a thistle head with two leaves and the motto round the margin, NEMO ME IMPVNE LACESSIT; and close among these, fragments of what we believe to have been a brass sporran chain, beautifully worked and chased in a plaited pattern. The coins were Fig. 14. View of the Castle on the Isle of Loch Doch irt, as it now appears. By Thomas Ross, F.S. A. Scot. probably in the sporran of one of the last occupants of the castle. An axe lay close by, but an ash-tree had sent such a strong root through it, where the shaft had been burned out, that it was split quite open. On the hearth-stone, as if in peaceful expectation of being picked up to mend the peat fire, lay an ancient pair of tongs shown in fig. 13. These are all the relics we found, and they are now safely stored away. Throughout the whole of its progress the work of clearing out the ruins was most interesting, and now that it is finished, we have propped up the walls where necessary, and cemented loose stones and cracks, so that the castle on its little wooded island is now a picturesque object of interest and instruction; and I hope that this account may stir up other owners of castles to do their best for their preservation. IV. NOTES ON-(1) A DRINKING-CUP URN, FOUND AT BATHGATE; (2) A PREHISTORIC HUT IN TIREE; (3) A CAIRN CONTAINING SIXTEEN CINERARY URNS, WITH OBJECTS OF VITREOUS PASTE AND OF GOLD, AT STEVENSTON, AYRSHIRE; AND (4) PREHISTORIC BEADS OF COARSE VITREOUS PASTE. BY LUDOVIC M'LELLAN MANN, F.S. A. Scor. 1. NOTE ON A DRINKING-CUP URN FOUND AT BATHGATE, LinlithgowSHIRE, On 22nd March last Mr Arthur Hart, C.A., Glasgow, on the suggestion of Dr David Murray, showed me a fine drinking-cup urn which had been found about 22nd February last in a sand-pit near Bathgate. Soon thereafter I went and examined the place where the vessel had been found, and obtained information of the circumstances in which it was discovered from Mr William Houston, the workman who came upon it in digging sand, and from Mr Joseph Clayton, Manager of the Asbestic Sand Company, for which the sand is being excavated. The VOL. XL. 24 |