Nithsdale - the natural place to visit, live and work.

The origins of a fortified site at Sanquhar may lie with the sons of the powerful Celtic Chieftan Dunegal of Stathnith, recorded in the reign of David I (1124-53) whose second son Duvenald obtained the lands of Sanquhar and Eliock as his inheritance.

By 1191, Robert de Ros of Wark Castle, Northumberland and Helmsley in Yorkshire was granted the Barony of Sanquhar where he married Isabel, natural daughter of King William the Lion.  The original de Ros caslte still suvives as an earthwork at Ryehill, SE of the present ruin.  At the time of the Wars of Independence, the castle was granted to a de Ros descendant, William de Beuvayr, by Edward I and held for the English.

Robert de Ros' descendent and co-heiress, Isobel, married William de Crichton towards the end of Bruce's reign (ca.1320s) who thus obtained half of the barony.  Before long, William and Isobel obtained the whole barony which their descendents continued to hold through 10 generations.

The substantial expansion of Sanquhar Castle in the late 14th and particularly 15th centuries reflects the increasing prominence of the Crichton family as one of the princilal political factions of later medieval Scotland.  The family played a key role at the time of the minority of James II after 1437 when Sir William Crichton, keeper of Edinbugh Castle, vied for control of the King woth the Douglas and Livingstone factions, ultimately unsuccessfully.

Even after the abandonment of the Castle, the Deer Park enclosure walls and doocot were being well maintained to the mid 18th Century.  The ruins continued in the posession of the Dukes of Queensberry and Buccleuch until 1894 when purchased by the Marquess of Bute in whose family possession it still remains, forming part of the Bute Estate.

In 2007, a new group has formed with the hope of preserving, conserving and promoting the castle.  It deserves no less for the part which it has played in the story of Nithsdale.

Castle News

Preserving the Castle