162 Additions to the History of Oxnam Tower. 



Castles. It had been well peopled. The hearth stones of the 

 huts were ploughed up, not so many years since, in deepening 

 the soil. They had been of sandstone ; and the great heat, com- 

 bined with the fuel of sea-weed and wood, mixed with limpet 

 shells and split bones, had converted some of them into slaggy 

 concretions like pumice stone ; or if iron was present in the soil, 

 an iron-clinker was the product. In the kitchen midden, at the 

 outer edges, there still remain lai-ge collections of a large variety 

 of the common iimpet called "the Yaud," found on the grey- 

 waeke coast rocks at a little distance off, and numerous periwin- 

 kles. Mingled with these are split bones of large quadrupeds, 

 and horses' teeth, which are ploughed up every time the field is 

 cropped. The point of a roe's antler, and a human tooth, and 

 one or two fragments of shells of the crab have been picked up 

 also ; but no implements. There was a spring within the camp. 

 Iron slags are scattered over the next field which stretches to 

 Siccar point, and there is another kitchen midden at the head of 

 the foot road that leads to the cavern there, which is of modern 

 construction. The camp had been the citadel of the native in- 

 habitants whose remains are scattered over the fields on the 

 rough and barren spots that lay out of reach of the olden culti- 

 vator, and whose rude weapons are still picked up among the 

 furrows. 



Additions to the HiMorj/ of Oxnam, Tower, p. 95. 



The residence of the barons of Oxnam is called Oussnam Craig 

 by Pont. The Castle of Oxnam was taken and destroyed by 

 Edward de Balliol on his invasion of Scotland in 1333. See 

 Originales Parochiales, i., p. 392; Hailes' Annals, ii., p. 160; 

 and to Ridpath's 3$ord. Hist., p. 303. The original account is in 

 Walter de Hemingburgh, ii. p. 306-7 ; and Knighton, 2562, as 

 quoted there in a note. (English Historical Society's Edition). 

 "This year on March 9th, Edward de Baliol and many English 

 nobles invaded Scotland with fire and sword, laid waste the entire 

 country, and committed whatever evils they could inflict wherever 

 they passed ; and took a fortress in which Robert de Colevile, ten 

 men at arms, and many foot soldiers were detained as captivei- 

 (having been made prisoners by the Scots, says Ridpath, in their 



