Polnoon Castle

Polnoon Castle stands on a grassy motte beside the Polnoon Water in Millhall, within the parish of Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire. The site is a low, rectangular mound, about thirty metres long and twenty-two wide, rising four metres above the ground. The castle ruins occupy the top, where fragments of masonry lie scattered among nettles and brambles. A steep drop on the west side falls to the river, which joins the White Cart a short distance away. The motte itself may have supported an earlier timber fort before the stone castle was built. The castle’s story begins with Sir John Montgomery, ninth laird of Eaglesham, who captured the English knight Sir Henry Percy, known as Hotspur, at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. The ransom paid for Hotspur’s release funded the construction of Polnoon Castle. Later tradition claims Montgomery and Percy became friends, and Percy may even have advised on the castle’s design. Above the entrance once stood a carved spur in Hotspur’s honour, a reminder of these events. The Montgomery armorial panel, showing the family’s fleurs-de-lis combined with the Eglinton rings, was later moved to the old Cross Keys Inn in Eaglesham village. Visitors today find a quiet, windswept mound with little left of the stone buildings. Scattered blocks of red sandstone lie among nettles, and the remains of thick walls mark the northwest corner. The motte offers wide views over rolling farmland and distant hills. A short walk south leads to Eaglesham village, where the Montgomery armorial panel can still be seen above an old inn door. The river below rushes over shallow stones, adding to the sense of isolation. The castle’s ruins tell a story of feuds, ransoms and chivalry without needing a single standing wall.