61 



Wark Castle. By Rev. Peter Mearns. 



It is not intended that I should give in this paper a full his- 

 tory of the Castle of Wark. Such a narrative would embrace 

 the principal events of Border history in the five centuries 

 during which this ancient fortification was in its glory. The 

 duly devolved on me by the club is much less important. It 

 is meant that I should give the merest glance at the events 

 connected historically with the castle, embracing little more 

 than an enumeration of them ; and more particularly de- 

 scribe the existing ruins, in order so far to guide the club in 

 their investigation of them. 



We are met beneath the shadow of the Kaim on which the 

 castle stands. This was formerly supposed to form part of 

 the fortification, and to have been raised at an immense ex- 

 penditure of labour and means by the warlike borderers of 

 the 12th century. But in a paper, read to the club at last 

 meeting, I produced the evidence on which we are entitled 

 to conclude that this is a detrital ridge, belonging to the Drift 

 Period of geology. The club will now have an opportunity 

 of examining the strata, and judging for themselves. The 

 ridge contains unquestionable evidence of an antiquity com- 

 pared with which the most ancient monuments of human 

 skill are but of yesterday. From its summit more than sixty 

 centuries look down on us. 



This is not the first meeting of the club in the parish of 

 Carham. On the 6th of May 1840, six of its members met 

 at Cornhill, and, in the words of the president for the year, 

 who was not himself present, " after breakfast the x>arty pro- 

 ceeded to the old tower and village of Wark, where parts of 

 that ancient Border fortress are still standing. On leaving 

 Wark, the members directed their walk for nearly a mile 

 along the river side towards Carham, and met with a few 

 good plants," 



Such is the meagre account entered in the club's proceed- 

 ings, twenty-three years ago, as the result of their inspection 

 of the ruins of one of the most ancient of the Border castles. 

 I trust the members will make a more careful examination of 

 both the castle and the Kaim on which it stands, in their 

 present visit ; and I am sure they will be abundantly re- 

 warded for their pains. 



Carham is first mentioned in history in 1018, when a great 

 battle was fought here between the Scotch and the English, 



