TransactioHs. 60 



quarian research here, our labours being in tliis way, in many 

 cases, directed rather to resuscitate the extinct than to ex- 

 amine the tangible and existing. 



The Castle 



stood at the top of the High Street, on or near the site of the 

 New Church, the ground between the church and the river 

 being the Castle Gardens. It was a large and massy structure, 

 and had a command of the whole adjacent country. 



Its origin and early history appear to be unknown. But 

 we may reasonably conjecture that it did exist at an early 

 period, and was at least the occasional residence of the old 

 lords of Galloway. Perhaps when Uchtred, in the middle of 

 the twelfth century, founded at lincluden his Priory of Nuns, 

 it stood as the guarantee for their safety. And the remarkable 

 designation of Alan, probably his descendant, as Alan de 

 Dunfries, which occurs in an early charter, seems to show a 

 very intimate connection with the town. The foundation of a 

 Monastery, with grounds, in the very heart of the town, by 

 Alan's daughter, points the same way, even though we may 

 suppose that the Monastery stood on the site of a still earlier 

 ecclesiastical foundation. 



Alan, lord of Galloway, died in 1234. Thirty years after 

 this, Alexander III., King of Scots, received at Dumfries the 

 homage of the then King of ]\Ian ; and this would probably 

 be in the castle. And from the old Law Book Quon Attach, c. 

 72, we learn that something in the nature of a parliament or 

 general council was held at Dumfries. 



But in 1305, the undoubted fact appears that the justiciars 

 appointed by King Edward of England held their Assize or 

 Circuit Court in the castle, and the red Comyn met his death 

 in the Monastery. A disturbed period of our history followed, 

 and the place was taken and retaken. At length in 1312, 

 when it came into the hands of Bruce, he directed it to be 

 dismantled, to render it unserviceable in the event of its again 



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