Gilnockie Cottage

'Various Gilnockie buildings'

Taking the first left turn once over the bridge adjacent to Gilnockie Castle somewhere along that road towards Shortsholm was situated –

Gilnockie Cottage. (Gilknockie Cottage)

The Ordnance Survey Map of 1862 shows a Gilknockie Cottage, which appears to be on the bend of the river where Shortsholm is now situated. This would concur with the Census of 1841 and 1851 where the house numbering of the cottage was a follow on to Thorniewhats, which was a hamlet at that time. In 1841 living in the cottage is Jane and her husband Lancelot Armstrong. Lancelot had obviously travelled the world and came back to spend his last days in Gilnockie.

Obituary from the Carlisle Patriot 5th February 1848 reads:

At Gilnockie Cottage, Cannonbie on the 23rd ult, aged 63, Lancelot Armstrong Esq. surgeon of the Royal Navy and late of the Naval Hospital at the Cape of Good Hope. The deceased served as assistant surgeon on board the Ajax at the Battle of Trafalgar. He was also on board one of the ships under Admiral Duckworth, when she blew up in the passage of the Dardanelles. He lost the whole of his clothes etc and saved his life by swimming.

HMS Ajax, launched in 1798, was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. During the battle she assisted Orion in forcing the surrender of the French seventy-four Intrepide. The Ajax was destroyed in an accidental fire while serving in the Dardanelles in 1807 .