Old Place of Mochrum

The Old Place of Mochrum is a courtyard castle with two tower houses in a shallow bowl of land west of Wigtown. It is privately owned and not open to the public, but clearly visible from the road. Feasibly it may have replaced an earlier island fortification on Castle Loch, although the ruined buildings there have been dated to a later period. From 1342 onwards the castle was owned by the Dunbar family.

The older tower is believed to be 15th century, but could be older as early descriptions indicate heraldic panels that could only be 14th century – extremely unusual. Mochrum was retained by the Dunbars after the loss of the earldom of Dunbar, and the later tower house could be dated to 1475-1500. It passed with marriage to the Macdowells, but was allowed to fall into disrepair and was in ruins when purchased by the Marquess of Bute in about 1876, perhaps destroyed in the mid 17th century. Bute substantially restored and rebuilt the castle as shown by 19th century sketches showing that only the two ruined towers and a section of walling between the two existed at that time.

HES Canmore database entry