Topography of Dumi-uies. 181 



fought to prevent the relief of Stirling; Castle. Bruce's policy 

 naturally was to destroy these structures, and throughout 

 Scotland he swept most of the Castles away. Of Roxburgh 

 Castle, to which (an EngHsh official reports between 1563 and 

 1566) Dumfries Castle presented a similar " platt and 

 ground,"'''' the Lanercost Chronicler writes: — " They razed 

 to the ground the whole of that beautiful castle just 

 as they did other castles which they succeeded in taking lest 

 the English should ever hereafter be able to lord it over the 

 land through holding these castles." Fordun specifically 

 states that Dumfries Castle was thrown down,^^ g^d despite 

 the casual references of other writers, we have failed to find 

 sufficient evidence to show that it was ever rebuilt or occu- 

 pied. In 1334 Edward Balliol conveyed by charter the Town, 

 Castle, and County of Dumfries to Edward III., and the latter 

 appointed Peter Tilliol, Sheriff of Dumfries and Custodian of 

 the Castle. Two years later, according to the report of Sir 

 Eustace de Maxwell, the Castle, with ihe adjoining lands of 

 Kingholm, was still waste. ''^ The only other reference known 

 to us is in the Charter of Galloway to Archibald Douglas, 

 18th September, 1369, where the blench duty of a white rose 

 is appointed to be paid " at our Castle of Drumfres,"*'^ which 

 is not sufficient to base occupation upon. The Chapel at 

 Castledykes, known as the Nether Chapel, remained, how- 

 ever, until the Reformation, its patronage being in the hands 

 of the Crown. In 1569, with all other Church property, 

 it passed into the possession of the burgh. 



Information about the burgh is extremely scanty from 

 1300 to 1500. Only after the latter date do we come into 

 possession of specific topographical details. We find streets, 

 public buildings, blocks of houses, chapels, a school in exist- 

 ence. The dates at which they came into being are more or 

 less conjectural. 



The Chapels. 



It cannot have been long prior to the date of its endow- 

 ment by Bruce (30lh November, 1323) that Christiana Bruce, 

 his sister, erected the Chapel of the Holy Rood on the spot 

 where her husband, Sir Christopher Seton, had been beheaded 



