Comlongon Castle

Comlongon Castle stands a kilometre west of Clarencefield, roughly ten kilometres south-east of Dumfries. It is a red sandstone tower house of the later fifteenth or early sixteenth century, raised for the Murrays of Cockpool to replace their earlier castle of that name. Cuthbert of Cockpool, who died in 1493, is credited with the work, while a licence to build was granted to his son John around 1500. The tower measures roughly fifteen by thirteen metres and rises some eighteen metres to a corbelled parapet, its walls reaching over four metres thick. Set on a stone plinth to steady it against marshy ground, the building is regarded as exceptionally complete. Within the thickness of the walls run a dozen mural chambers — bed recesses, a guardroom and a cell — alongside a vaulted cellar with its own well, two spiral stairs, and an unlit dungeon reached by a trapdoor. A great fireplace carries the Royal Arms of Scotland, and a finely decorated aumbry survives. A baronial mansion was later attached to the tower. The Murrays held Comlongon until 1984; between 1939 and 1952 it served as a Barnardo’s children’s home before its conversion into a hotel.