Barscobe Castle

Barscobe Castle is a modest tower house built on a low rocky outcrop surrounded by a considerable expanse of rough ground, often marshy. It is not visible from any public roads, and is set to the rear of a working farm, but is listed as being available for holiday lets through a number of websites.

The lands of Barscobe were part of the barony of Balmaclellan, parts of which was held by the Gordon family from the Earl of Douglas in 1408, but Barscobe itself first appears on record in 1502, when it was held by John MacLellan., suggested to have been from the Gelston family. He died in 1515 leaving his son John to inherit as a minor; his tutor was Sir Robert Gordon of Glen until 1524. Another John is recorded in 1562, and his grandson William was granted Barscobe in 1577. In 1619 William MacLellan married Margaret Gordon of Troquhain, but in 1625 William ranted Barscobe to his nephew William. It was not until 1648 that nephew William elected to build himself a house at Barscobe, looking from the outside like a modest L-plan tower house of half a century earlier, and he was given permission to use masonry taken from the castle of Threave. There was probably a walled garden to the south occupying the rest of the outcrop.

The castle is a rectangular residential block with a square wing at the southern end of the east wall. The entrance is in the wing in the re-entrant angle, and a winding stair leads to the first floor. The ground floor was not vaulted, and all floors were supported on wooden joists. Above the entrance is a heraldic panel bearing the arms of MacLellan and Gordon, the initials WM and MG, and the date 1648. The ground and first floor were probably subdivided into two rooms each, although the subdivision of the first floor great hall may have been a later development as the large fireplace is centrally placed in the north wall. The second floor was always divided in two rooms, and was also reached by the staircase in the wing. The windows for this floor are dormers, and it seems likely that the chambers were open to the rafters. The only real alterations to the building concerned the windows, which were enlarged to their current size, and reworked at the second floor level, with the southern dormers removed with a new roofline. The building was restored in the 1970s, having ended its former life as a farm store after years of tenant farmers living there.

The son of William and Margaret succeeded to Barscobe in 165, but duie to the wars of the time he did not receive sasine until 1664. This did not prevent him from electing to rebel as a Covenanter against King James II, and he was forfeited in 1666, 1669, and 1679, but the sentence was never really successful as he continued to run his estates throughout. In the end he was captured and sentenced to be executed in 1682. The sentence was repeatedly deferred, and he eventually regained his freedom, only to be murdered by Grierson of Mylnemark two years later. At this time Barscobe held a garrison, and his son was a minor living with his mother elsewhere. Young Robert was permitted to inherit Barscobe after 1689, but was in financial difficulty almost immediately. In 1702 he borrowed a huge amount of money and unsurprisingly as an impoverished laird, became a Jacobite rebel in 1`715, for which he was imprisoned in London. His son Robert did succeed him, but the family debt situation got no better, and when his son Robert succeeded n the 1760s, he had no option but to sell the estate to appease his creditors. After this Barscobe was sold several times, gradually declining as a tenant farm.

HES Canmore database entry