Auchen Castle

Auchen Castle stands in a quiet valley near Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway. Built in the 13th century, it is a ruined quadrangular castle with four walls enclosing an open courtyard. The Kirkpatrick family probably constructed it to control the River Annan valley and the ravine of Garpol Burn. A charter from 1306 mentions the estate for the first time, when Sir Roger de Kirkpatrick lent money to the Earl of Hereford. After Kirkpatrick’s death in 1313, the lands passed to Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray. By the 15th century the castle belonged to the Douglasses of Morton, later to the Johnstones of Corehead. The castle’s earliest form had a four-sided enclosure with a round bastion at one corner and a garderobe in the east wall. A broad ditch protected the walls except on the north side, where a causeway crossed fish ponds. A dog-leg forework was added to strengthen the entrance. In the late 15th or early 16th century the walls were lowered and reinforced for artillery use. An inventory from 1483 lists furnishings such as a folding table, a featherbed with curtains, a sword, kitchenware and altar ornaments. Visitors today see grass-grown ruins rising above a shallow ditch. The remains of the four walls still mark the quadrangular plan. Inside, the lowered walls show where gun positions were added. A small stream runs past the north side where the causeway once crossed the fish ponds. The quiet valley and surrounding hills give a sense of the strategic position the castle once held over the valley and ravine.