68 Burghs of Annandale. 



history of both. Probably not long after the settlement of 

 the Brus family in Annandale they made themselves a castle, 

 or strong- house, guarded on more sides than one by water, 

 with which nature has somewhat lavishly dowered Loch- 

 maben. One etymology explains the name as either " the 

 loch of the cluster " or "the cluster of lochs." Dubious 

 this may be in point of demonstration — though Maibean is 

 explained in the Highland Society's Gaelic Dictionary (ed. 

 1827) as a bunch or cluster — yet nothing could well be more 

 geographically apposite for the quiet old town which Burns 

 with so much propriety named " Marjory o' the mony lochs." 

 The original Brus Castle is understood to have been that of 

 which the site and foundations remain in the Castlehill, 

 situated on the neck of land between the Castle Loch and 

 the Kirk Loch. As usual at that time church and castle were 

 near each other. Lochmaben appears as presumably the 

 Brus residence about 1166, when King William the Lion 

 granted at Lochmaben a renewal charter of Annandale in 

 favour of Robert de Brus.^^ Probably a few years later the 

 original grant of Lochmaben church to the canons of Gyse- 

 burne, in Yorkshire, was made, a grant of which only the 

 subsequent confirmation has been preserved. ^9 To St. Mary 

 Magdalene^*^ the church was dedicated, ■^i a fact explaining 

 the subsequent importance of the Magdalene day as the 

 fair day of Lochmaben, and further identifying for us the 

 female figure on the town seal. The castle, like that of 

 Annan, is on record in 1173 as the stronghold of Robert 

 de Brus, a staunch adherent of William the Lion.^s Most 

 probably it was this same Robert de Brus who gave to the 

 Hospital of St. Peter at York a house in Lochmaben with 



28 Bain's Cal., i., 105; National MSS. Scot., i., plate xxxix. 



29 Gyseburne Chartulary, No. 1176. 



30 The fair day at Lochmaben in 1484 was on 22nd July, the 

 Magdalen day. (Godscioft ed., 1743, p. 379.) By James VI. 's 

 charter to the burgh this fair was one of the two which were 

 re-authorised. 



31 Reg. Glasg., 83. 



32 Benedictus, i., 47-49. 



