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Loch Leven - Ancient history
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The Castle Island today occupies about 8 acres
and is about 4 times the size that it was in ancient times following
the lowering of the water level in the Loch by 4 feet or nearly 1.5
metres between 1826 and 1836. Up until then, the water came up almost
to the castle walls.
Little is known of the island's early history
but it is obviously an easily defended site and could well have had
some kind of fort on it even before the days of the Pictish King Brude,
son of Dergart, who ruled the area in the 7th or 8th century. The
original building is said to have been a fort built by Congal, King
of the Picts, in the 6th century but, being of timber, no trace now
remains.
The first stone castle was probably built during the reign of King
Alexander II. In 1256, the boy-king Alexander III and his even younger
Queen (daughter of Henry III of England) were taken from Lochleven
Castle to Stirling to be kept safe from the English invaders.
In October 1303, Edward I's army was resting
up for the winter. According to Blind Harry the Minstrel, writing
in the next century, Sir William Wallace launched a daring raid with
18 of his men on Lochleven Castle, then in the hands of the English.
Blind Harry claims that Wallace himself swam naked to the island of
St Serfs at the east end of the loch where he collected a boat in
which he and his men rowed to the Castle Island and attacked the garrison
there. All 30 Englishmen were killed although the 5 women were spared.
Robert the Bruce also stayed in the castle in 1313, visiting again
in 1323.
For much of the 14th century,
Lochleven Castle served as a State Prison. John of Lorn, the Lord
Admiral, was incarcerated there by Robert the Bruce after the Battle
of Bannockburn in 1314. In 1368, the Steward of Scotland (who later
became King Robert II) and his son Alexander, the notorious "Wolf
of Badenboch", were prisoners there. Other inmates included Archibald,
Earl of Douglas and, some years later, Patrick Graham, the first Archbishop
of St Andrews. The castle's most famous prisoner, however, was undoubtedly
Mary Queen of Scots.
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In 1328, Lochleven Castle was listed as one of
the Royal Castles along with Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton. The
castle's natural strength meant that in 1329, part of the Royal Exchequer
was deposited within its walls. The death of King Robert I (Robert
the Bruce) that same year heralded a renewed attempt by Edward III
to conquer Scotland. By 1334, only five strongholds were holding out
for King Robert's successor, King David II, but one of these was Lochleven
Castle then in the hands of Sir Allan Vipont.
The following year, the castle was besieged by Sir John Stryrelyne
(Stirling), the Lairds of Arnot and some English soldiers. The attacking
force bombarded the Castle Island from the area of the Kirkgate Cemetery
but Vipont's garrison beat off the attempt despite a siege lasting
9 months. Legend has it that Stryvelyn tried to drown them by damming
the outflowing River Leven but a night raid by Vipont's men broke
the dam and drowned many of the besiegers camped nearby.
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