Kirkcudbright Castle. 223 



bestowal of the Crown on John BalHol by Edward I., except 

 to state that the last hearing of the cause took place in 

 Berwick Castle on 17th November, 1292. Here Edward 

 made the decision of conferring the Crown on John Balliol, 

 the " Toom Tabard " of the Scottish chroniclers. The 

 Regents were commanded to give him possession of the king- 

 dom, and the governors of the national fortresses, which had 

 previously been surrendered to Edward, were directed to hand 

 them over to his custody. Among the number were those of 

 Kirkcudbright, Dumfries, and Wigtown. 



The first time the castle of Kirkcudbright is mentioned, 

 so far as the public records are concerned, was in the year 

 1288, when John Comyn was the guardian of " the castle and 

 lands which belonged to the King in Kirkcudbright." It is 

 worthy of note that King Edward placed the castles of Kirk- 

 cudbright, Dumfries, and Wigtown for a number of years 

 under the custody of a single governor. All three castles 

 have disappeared, and it was only in 1911 that excavations, 

 continued in 191 2, revealed the foundations and parts of the 

 walls of Kirkcudbright Castle, showing clearly that it was a 

 fortress of great importance. 



Dumfries Castle became the base for King Edward's 

 operations in his great invasion of 1300, his first operation 

 being the siege and reduction of Caerlaverock Castle. The 

 siege took place in tlie early days of July, and the King 

 remained at Dumfries for ten days giving orders and superin- 

 tending operations for the strengthening of the fortress, 

 interesting items of which appear in the Wardrobe Accounts. 



On the 17th Edward entered Galloway, and on the 19th 

 he reached Kirkcudbright, and we are justified in believing 

 that the soldier king at this period gave orders to have the 

 castle put into a proper state of defence, and planned accord- 

 ing to the ideas of the day. He could not fail to be struck 

 with the importance of the site from a military point of view, 

 covering, as it did, an important town, and a fertile belt of 

 land in which to subsist his soldiers. With Kirkcudbright, 

 Dumfries, and Wigtown castles in his hands, he was master 

 of a wide province. 



W'^hile at Kirkcudbright, Edward on 27th July issued n 



