164 LOCKERBIE IN ITS ORIGIN. 
together was for mutual aid and protection, and we can therefore 
understand that the inhabitants of the little village would be knit 
together by these and other ties into the closest relationship, and 
would become practically as one family. 
BonsHAaw Tower. By Colonel J. B. Irvine. 
The Irvings originally came from Ayrshire. When Duncan, 
afterwards King Duncan I., was appointed King or Prince of 
Cumberland by his grandfather, King Malcolm II., he took with 
him several of the Scots clans to the Borders to defend them. 
With him went the clan of the Erevines or Irvings, under Crine 
Eryvinus’s brother. About 1024 they took up their first habita- 
tion upon the river Esk, between the White and Black Esk. 
There they built their first habitation, Castle Irving, below Lang- 
holm. ‘The burn and wood do still carry the name of Irving 
Wood and Irving Burn. ‘The ruins of the castle existed till the 
close of the seventeenth century. On the same spot now stands 
Irvine House, belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, and inhabited 
by his chamberlain. From this Castle Irving the eldest of the 
family acquired by marriage the Tower and lands of Bonshaw. 
In this Bonshaw Tower, on the right bank of the Kirtle Water, 
ever since has continued to reside the acknowledged head of this 
powerful Scots Border clan. 
The name Bonshaw, Boneschaw, etc., is derived from schaw, 
the Saxon for wood or woodland, and bon, the Norman for good 
or fair. It was written in Latin as Bon-boscum. Sometimes the ~ 
hame was written as it was vulgarly pronounced, as Bonshall or 
Bonshank. 
I do not know definitely when the Tower was built, though 
there are many rumours. But I think we may fairly conclude 
that there was a Tower on this spot when we got it about 1024, 
as we made it our principal residence. Bonshaw is of the usual 
square shape of most of the Border peile towers. The Tower 
stands on an almost sheer rocky precipice about 100 feet above the 
Kirtle Water. In front is a terrace, now armed with six old guns ; 
on the right is a steep ravine with a burn flowing through it and 
-a waterfall. In old days it was possible to surround the place 
with water. The Tower is built of a mixture of red and white 
sandstone rock quarried in the ravine a little above the Tower. 
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