110 GEOLOGY OF ARRAN. 



A stronghold of some kind seems to have existed from 

 very early times on or about this spot. It was a place of 

 great strength and considerable size in the time of Bruce, 

 who, after his descent upon Arran, from Rathlin, besieged 

 and took the castle, then held under Edward I. by Sir John 

 Hastings; and from Brodick he is said to have taken his 

 departure for the mainland, on his perilous expedition for 

 the liberation of Scotland. This was in 1307, and there 

 were still seven years before him of peril and varied fortune 

 ere his authority was finally established at Bannockburn, 

 on 24th June, 1314. The history of the various occupants 

 of Brodick Castle will be found detailed with consider- 

 able fulness in the Statistical Account, and Reid's 

 History of tfie County of Bute* The castle was razed 

 to its foundations, in 1544, by the Earl of Lennox, sent 

 by Henry VIII. on an expedition against Scotland so 

 that no part of the present building can be older than that 

 date. 



The connection of the Hamilton family with Arran dates 

 from 1474. Sir James Hamilton, created Lord Hamilton, 

 his manor house of Orchard, in the barony of Cadzow, being 

 declared his principal messuage, and having its name changed 

 to Hamilton, was attached to the Princess Mary, daughter 

 of James II., and would have espoused her but for the 

 untimely death of her father. Her hand was afterwards 

 bestowed by her brother, James III., on Thomas, son of 

 Lord Regent Boyd, and, as her dowry, a grant of lands in 

 Arran was made, and Boyd was created Earl of Arran. 

 That family, however, soon fell their estates were forfeited, 

 the Earl fled abroad, and died there. In 1474, Lord 

 Hamilton, now a widower, married his first love, the 

 widowed Princess Mary, but survived only five years, dying 

 in 1479, and leaving a son, James, second Lord Hamilton, 

 then only four years old. By charter, dated 10th October, 



* Messrs. Murray & Son, Glasgow, 



