Caerlaverock Castle

In 1300, Caerlaverock was besieged by 3000 soldiers of Edward I's English army, who set up camp around its walls and aimed their trebuchets at its sturdy walls. When it was clear that further defence was useless, the Scottish Garrison was found to comprise only 60 men, most of whom were set free although a few were hanged from the walls as an example to the people of Galloway.

One of the English army wrote a famous poem about the event, called '' The Song of Caerlaverock ":

" Mighty was Caerlaverock Castle. Siege it feared not, scorned surrender-
Wherefore came the king in person. Many a resolute defender, well supplied with stones and engines, 'gainst assault the fortress manned.
Shield-shaped, was it, corner-towered, gate and draw-bridge barbican'd,
Strongly walled, and girt with ditches filled with water brimmingly.
Ne' er was castle lovelier sited: westward by the Irish sea,
North a countryside of beauty by an arm of sea embraced.
On two sides, who e'er approached it danger from the waters faced;
Nor was easier the southward - sea-girt land of Marsh and wood;


From the castle, you can walk past the site of an even older one, abandoned in the 1270s because it was too wet... and then on to the nature reserve, where paths run alongside the merse and through ancient woodland

Cycling Dumfries were headed here today, but arrived after me. I had the whole castle to myself. Amazing.

therfore from the east we neared it, up the slope on which it stood. "