Gilnockie Castle

'Search for the past'

Now, there is some considerable and heated debate even today, where the exact site of Johnnie’s residence was.

Gilnockie Hall/Castle

The location of Gilnockie Hall/Castle "Here at the Carlisle end of Gilnockie Bridge, on the high tongue of rocky land that projects into the stream, are faint but unmistakable outlines of a large building, with outworks. The position is magnificent-- impregnable, in fact, to any force of olden days unprovided with artillery. On three sides the rocky banks drop nearly sheer into the water ..." described by Andrew Lang in Highways and Byways in the Border (1913), and the Ordnance Survey Map Published in 1862 has Gilnockie Castle named at this spot.

From this point we travel north towards Langholm through the Hollows on the old A7 trunk road about half a mile and we find -

Gilnockie Tower

Gilnockie built in 16th Century, was restored in 1979-80.

The original name of the Tower was the Holehouse; the House by the Hole (the name of the quarry from which the stone for the building was extracted). This was abbreviated to ‘Hollas’ by local usage. Listed as Gilnockie in 1937 in the Register of Sasines - the land registry .

The Ordnance Survey Map of 1862 has this building listed as Gilnockie Tower.

Gilnockie is one of the finest and best-preserved examples of a reiver’s tower house or ‘pele’ .