Day 3 - Drumley House & Dundonald Castle

Drumley House

James Stewart was born in 1609 at Drumley House in Mossblown, Ayrshire, Scotland. While it is rumored that he was an "undocumented bastard son" of Sir James Stewart, 4^th Earl of Ochiltree, I cannot in good faith claim Sir James as a grand sire and thus must give up my kinship to Robert the Bruce.

I cannot find any reference to the construction date of Drumley House. However, prior to its conversion to a preparatory school for boys in 1960, it had been converted to a maternity hospital. In 2013 it was deemed unfit and demolished along with, perhaps, the documentation of James Stewart's parentage.

Jame's son, John Stewart (Stuart), was one of the group of Forfeited Covenanters who, because their religion was on the wrong side of those in power at the time, were forced to forfeit their possessions and "move" to Northern Ireland. Somewhere along the way, their surname changed from Stewart to Stuart.

We started the day with plans to stop for breakfast at The Cotton Trail Cafe near Mauchlin. I had picked this from Google maps. When we arrived, it seems that the cafe had been closed due to Covid; however, we found a take away around he corner with the same name. We explained that we were looking for a sit down breakfast and they pointed us on in to Mauchlin. Here we found The Mossgiel Snug, a small coffee house that served breakfast sandwiches and had three small tables. Here I also found that I could have Lorne sausage, similar to our sausage, made from minced meat, rusk (a hard bread) and spices.

Dundonald Castle

From here we proceeded on to Dundonald Castle. Built in 1371 by Scots King Robert II, second son of Robert the Bruce, it was used as a royal residence by both him and is son King Robert III. It stands on a hilltop overlooking the town of Dundonald and is thought to be the site of a dark age hill fort as well as three medieval castles.

The castle consists of a basement, a vaulted hall and the king's quarters atop the hall. I did not take into account that the king's quarters were not just a single flight when I decided to visit it up the spiral staircase. (Fortunately, other than weak knees at the top, I have not suffered any long term sore thighs.)

One thing I learned from the docent was that notables wore "icons" or crests such as the
so that the masses could recognize them. After all, they did not have the constant bombardment of news that leaves present day leaders burned into our memories. I had been aware of the crests adorning shields in battle and sport, but had not thought of it being applied to everyday clothing. While the wearing of such back then by anyone but the King would probably result in severe punishment, today anyone can buy a t-shirt with a royal crest.

We had quite a talk with the docent who was more than delighted to discuss local issues and, to some extent, politics. At the base of the castle hill is the Visitor Centre. Here, over sandwiches and a diet Irn Bru we had a delightful talk with Jimmy and his wife (whose name I did not get). Born in '45, he spent 45 years as a truck driver (oddly he did not say lorry, possibly for us colonist), Our discussions touched on many aspects of local life including the current garbage strike and other necessities. I find these discussions with local folks often much more interesting than the life of Robert II.

We finally finished our meal and parted ways and we headed on back towards Crawfordjohn. As in the States, they are rushing to finish up any road work before bad weather sets in. We had passed several work site where we were "diverted" to a single lane around the work. However, this day we came upon not one but two road closures that caused us to detour around. The first was in a small town and Our Lady of the GPS found a way around. However, it did take us down a short stretch of roadway that I was surprised was even in her database. It was more of a narrow wagon way with bushes on each side that actually whipped me inside the car window.

The second closure was in the middle of nowhere and we had to just turn around and take a road 90° to our path. Fortunately Our Lady computed a new path rather than forcing us to U turn go back to the original path.

The Crawfordjohn Heritage Center

Back in Crawforjohn, we visited the local Heitage Center. Located in an old church building, it contains bits of information on the area and can assist in ancestry research. The two ladies manning the facility said that they could not help us with research into the Stuarts since, by its very nature, they would not have documentation on undocumented events. But we had a delightful visit and they pointed me to a nearby stone circle and provided a copy of instructions to help find it. It involves walking across an uneven field to find low stones covered by tall grass. We will try to work it in if we can.



After dinner at the Colebrook Arms, we returned to rest for the evening.

Our plans for Sunday are to visit the Melrose Abbey where the heart of Robert the Bruce is said to reside. There is a stone marker (I have seen it) but the truth of the heart's presence is questionable.

We will meet my friend Barry Austin for lunch in Melrose, his home town. I'm sure we will spend much of he time talking about our dear friend Alex.