316 Field Meetings. 



from the Cottonian collection of MSS. in the British Museum, 

 and which, it is said, was written by one of the officers of the 

 opposite March of England who had come to " spy out the 

 land" about 1560: — " Cardines Toure standeth upon an hight 

 bancke and rocke, harde uponn the watter Flete : there can be 

 noo ordinance nor gounes endomage yt of the sea, nor there 

 can noo artyllarye be taken to it upoun the lande, ones having 

 the house, for straitness of ground, and yf ye lande at Newton 

 vp upoun flete watter, then ye must pass one myle strait ground 

 up rockes, where noo ordinance can be caryed but upoun mens 

 backes. Yt is nyne foote thick of the wall, withoute a bermeking, 

 and withoute battaling. At the ground eb men may ryde under 

 the place upoun the sandes one myle: And at the full sea, boats 

 of eight tounes may come under the wall. It may be taken 

 witht two hundreitht men, at the suddane. And being in EngHss 

 possession, may be kepte witht one hundreit men in garrisone : 

 It will annoy e the inhabitantes betux the watter of Cree aforesaid, 

 and Kiyrkcowbright ; and be assistant to the same. Distant by 

 see from Workington in Englande twenty-two myles." 



Like all ancient castles, tradition has invested Cardoness 

 with much that is interesting, if not strictly apocryphal. There 

 is one story to the effect that the castle was built by a father 

 and two sons, who bore the name of Kardoness, and v.ho spent 

 the whole of their substance in erecting the stonework of the 

 walls. They had not, however, sufficient means to defray the 

 cost of roofing, and the sons carried the heather for its covering 

 from Glennicken Moors. M'Cullochs, Gordons, Murrays, and 

 Maxwells have all been owners of Cardoness. ine M'Cullochs, 

 it is said, are doubtless of the original Celtic people who occupied 

 Scotland before the invasion of the Saxon, Roman, Dane, or 

 Norman. One tradition traces the M'Cullochs to Ulgric, who 

 was killed at the Battle of the Standard in 1138. The most 

 noted of the M'Cullochs was the turbulent Cutlar, regarding 

 whom this proverb was long current in the Isle of Man : — 



" God keep the good corn, the sheep, and the bullock, 

 From Satan and sin and Cutlar M'Culloch." 



A saying familiar to a past generation of Gatehouse people may 

 have reference to the same individual — " Weel, that cowes Cut- 

 lings, and Cutlings cowed the De'il." Sir Godfrey M'Culloch 



