Kerse Castle or Carse Castle (NGR NS 4385 1413 ) is a ruined fortification once held by the Craufurd Clan, situated in the Parish of Dalrymple, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
Kerse Castle
No descriptions or accurate pictorial representations of Kerse Castle have survived. The site of the estate is identifiable through the presence beside the Bow Burn of dykes and ditches, building platforms, apple trees, non-native planned policy plantings such as beech and horse-chestnut, nettles marking refuse dumps, evidence from old maps, march dykes, and place names evidence (Kerse Bridge & cottage), etc. The now abandoned Holehouse Railway Branchline was built through the top section of the site and this has both damaged it and introduced possible anomalies.
Kerse Castle was dismantled for use in the building of Skeldon House around 1760. Close (2012), Page 609[Young, p.86.] On the night of 29 December 1797, a raging storm brought down the remaining wall of the old castle.
Cartographic evidence
Robert Gordon's map of circa marks the castle of Cars (sic) near the loch.Gordon's Map Retrieved : 2011-09-19 The Blaeu map of circa 1654 taken from Timothy Pont's map of circa 1600 shows Cars Castle (sic) with substantial grounds and woodland.Blaeu's Map Retrieved : 2011-09-19 Molls map of 1745 shows the castle lying to the east of the loch.Moll's Map Retrieved : 2011-09-17 Roy's map of 1747 records the castle as Carse, again located to the east of the loch.Roy's Map retrieved : 2011-09-19 In 1821 the loch is clearly shown and 'Kerse' is shown towards the Sundrum Water.Ainslie Retrieved : 2011-09-19 In 1832 Thomson's map shows a 'Carse' dwelling on a road to the east.Thomson's Map Retrieved : 2011-09-19
Family history The Craufurds of Kerse were a cadet branch of the Craufurds of Loudoun, and ultimately became the representatives of the Dalmagregan Crawfords, carrying in their armorial bearings a stag’s head, as did also the Craufurds of Drumsoy and the Craufurds of Comlarg. The spelling 'Craufurd' is adopted here.
Reginald was the first of the Kerse family, being a son of Hugh Craufurd of Loudoun. The land grant came from his brother Hugh in the reign of Alexander III of Scotland (4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286). References occur to several members of the family occur in the reigns of James the First and Fourth, including several Esplin's. In 1508, David Craufurd of Kerse, David his son, John Craufurd, ‘proctour,’ Esplane Craufurd, and seven others were fined for hindering the sitting of the bailliary court of Carrick. The laird of Kerse himself had to pay five pounds, and the others paid four shillings each.
On 5 October 1527, Bartholomew Craufurd of Kerse; David and Duncan his brothers; George Craufurd of Lochnorris, and William his brother; John Craufurd of Drougan, John and William his sons, with many others, were cautioned for helping Hugh Campbell of Loudoun, sheriff of Ayr, in the cruel slaughter of Gilbert, Earl of Cassillis. This incident was known as the 'Raid of Loudoun'.
The grandson of Bartholomew, David Craufurd of Kerse, only had a daughter and on his death in 1600, he was succeeded by Alexander Craufurd of Balgregan in Galloway as the closest male heir; he was descended from a son of David, the brother of Bartholomew, and titled 'of Culnorris and Balgregan'. The original lands of Kerse appear to have then passed to the next heir, probably of the Comlarg family. In 1680, Alexander Craufurd of Kerse inherited the lands of Nether Skeldon from his father Alexander Craufurd of Kerse.
Alexander Craufurd was the last male Craufurd proprietor of Kerse as his heir, a daughter named Christian Crawford of Kerse, married a Mr. Moodie. The couple had no offspring and she passed the lands of Kerse to William Ross of Sandwick. The Ross family built Skeldon House circa 1760. The estate of Kerse then passed to his children who sold it to the Oswalds of Auchencruive, with whom it still remained into the 19th century.Craufurd History Retrieved: 2011-09-24
Other family details John McDougall of Logan who died in 1618 is recorded to have Margaret Craufurd of Kerse.Genealogy Forum Retrieved : 2011-09-24 Edward Henry John Craufurd (9 December 1816 – 29 August 1881) was a Scottish Radical politician, eldest son of John Craufurd of Auchenames and Kerse in the counties of Renfrewshire and Ayr, Treasurer General of the Ionian Islands, and Sophia Marianne Churchill, daughter of Major General Churchill and great-granddaughter of Sir Robert Walpole. Margaret Craufurd of Cumlarg, daughter of Captain John Craufurd of Camlarg, son of Craufurd of Kerse.The Douglas family Retrieved : 2011-09-24
Joanna Livingston (widow of Hon John Livingston, Master of Livingston) married David Craufurd of Kerse at some point before November 1567.Lord Torphichen Retrieved : 2011-09-24 William Cunynghame of Milncraig, son of William Cunyngham, 1st of Milncraig, married the daughter of David Craufurd of Kerse in the early 17th century.The Peerage retrieved : 2011-09-24
In a "charge aganis Personis vnder Deidlie Feid" dated 1595, Robert, Master of Eglinton and Patrick Houston of that Ilk were required to appear personally before the King and council at Holyrood House. One of the friends that were permitted to accompany Patrick was a Craufurd of Kerse.Paterson, Page cxxxiv
Coat of arms The coat of arms of Crawford of Kerse is recorded as 'Argent (silver), a stag’s head erased Gules (red)'.Clan Crawford Retrieved : 2011-09-21 The term 'erased' in heraldly is anything which appears forcibly torn off, leaving the edges jagged and uneven.
Ayrshire stories and legends
The Craufurds of Kerse "The Craufurds of Kerse were ever a lawless family. Their domains were wide, and their influence, wider still. David Craufurd had only to send out his messengers, and replies came in, in the guise of horsemen and of footmen, from a range of country stretching from the upper waters of the Irvine to the mid-waters, of the Ayr, and reaching from these to where the Doon washed the domains of the Kennedys. The Craufurds played an important part in the national history. Sir Reginald Craufurd, the uncle of Sir William Wallace, was one of their forebears, and for a long series of years they held the hereditary sheriffship of Ayr. But they were feudal, and the Kerse of the early days of the sixteenth century, the chieftain of the house of Craufurd and the acknowledged leader of the men of Kyle when their interests were threatened, was never more at home than when, in the saddle, he raided the lands of Carrick, or turned his arms against the Montgomeries of Eglinton. He is waiting in court to stand trial, but ere he is called to appear at the bar, one of his followers, John Shaw, is examined on two separate indictments. He had slain with a stone a certain John Boyd, whether a scion of the house of Boyd or a man of no recognized family, we do not know. In all probability the latter, for the case is soon disposed of. Craufurd offers himself a surety to satisfy the parties, and his suretyship is accepted as a matter of course. But Shaw had performed a more serious and compromising action. Duncan Fergusson, the young laird of Kilkerran, bad been residing at Burnfoot, and thither Shaw had gone at the head of a party of the retainers of Kerse. They had broken down the walls of the dwelling and wasted it, and for the space of a year they had made periodical incursions on the lands of Burnfoot, and destroyed every attempt to cultivate them; and to fill the cup of their vengeance, they had set upon one of the servants of the laird of Kilkerran with their swords, and had cruelly done him to death. But it was all in pursuance of hereditary struggle, and in conformity with the unwritten, yet fully recognized, laws of the blood feud; and therefore, when Craufurd offers again to become surety, Lord Gray interposes no objection, and Shaw rejoins his friends."The Trial of the Feudalist retrieved : 2011-09-20
"Kerse was displeased that Lord Eglinton should hold the office of bailie. He had no territorial influence in Carrick, and while Craufurd had none himself, for many miles and by many a stretch of the winding Doon his lands looked across to those of the baillary. And so it had come about that, while the Earl held court, the Craufurds, present in force, had so conducted themselves that the magistrate had not dared to adjudicate upon the affairs of Kilhenzie. Surely a serious offence, thus cavalierly to interfere with one of the judicatures of the country! Well, it may have been, but if a judgment on the regard in which the misdemeanour was held may be gauged by the sentence, it can hardly be that Lord Gray was inclined to see in it anything worse than an ordinary feudal offending. Kerse was fined in five pounds Scots, and the members of his family and his followers in forty shillings each."
Views of Kerse Castle and policies
The Raid of Barbieston "The night was still serene, and sound traveled far; and from the direction in which the Castle of Kerse stood there fell on their ears an indistinct, undefined noise. Guiltree looked at Cloncaird, and they both reined in their horses and listened. The sound was faint, for it was far off, but, as they listened, it gradually shaped itself into what they could quite well comprehend. It came down more clearly, and more clearly still, until they recognized the rattle of a troop of horsemen across the rough stony road which led from Dalrymple to the hills above Cumnock. There was no need for caution now, and no time to be lost. It could be no other than the Craufurds, hard on their track.
"Drive on the cattle, and reach the ford" shouted Mure of Cloncaird. The Kennedys obeyed. The horsemen spread themselves out fan-like in rear of the booty, whips were applied to the hanks of the steers, the frightened sheep were driven at a run, and the captive horses required no urging on to hurry from the tumult which rose behind. All the while the sound of the coming Craufurds became more and more distinct. They were making for the ford, and if the Kennedys were to drive off the prey they must reach it before their pursuers. The most strenuous efforts were made, therefore, to accomplish their object; but, unless their expedition was to be bootless, there was a point beyond which they could not force their pace. They could have left the cattle, but as well might they have remained at home. To give them up without a struggle was not one of the contingencies. What they must do was to send a party forward with the booty, and to retain in the rear the service of all who were not thus employed. This they did.
About a dozen yeomen were accordingly instructed to drive the, flocks on towards the Doon, and to make the passage with all available speed; the remainder took up their position on the path as it ran through between two belts of trees, and there awaited the inevitable conflict.