Motte of Urr

Thought to be the best - preserved example of a motte and Bailey, excavations in the early 1950s, found evidence of destruction and fire damage, possibly relating to a rebellion in 1174. At this point, its defences would have consisted of a wooden tower atop the motte, with a timber palisade around the exterior of the bailey area, probably reinforced with stone. There was a Burgh of Urr somewhere close by, but it does not appear to have been occupied much after the early 1300s. A minor branch of the Baliol family held the castle in the 1200s, and while it was the site of a charter signing in 1262, no attempt seems to have been made to rebuild the castle in stone. There are suggestions that the sheer size of the castle's bailey area, indicate that it may have originally been an iron age fort.