Just off the east side of that southern part of the Little Cumbrae which
is included in the parish of West Kilbride, and on a low-lying turf and
weed-covered rock, which, according to the ebb and the flood of the
tide, is itself alternately a peninsula or an islet, there stands the
ruin of an ancient castle. It is still a massive pile of masonry, the
ground plan of which nearly forms a square, the difference between
length and breadth being less than ten feet. Its distance from the
Ayrshire coast and from Millport, on the Great Cumbrae, is about the
same; and owing to the comparative inaccessibility which the two or
three miles of sea give it, its interior is somewhat less dilapidated
than is usually the case with similar relics of the past to be met with
on the mainland. The partition walls of the several rooms have, it is
true, almost disappeared, so that, for instance, the storey immediately
above the vaults on the ground floor would appear to have consisted of
one hall, if it were not for the fact that it contains two large
chimneys. The ceilings are arched throughout, and it is doubtless due to
this architectural peculiarity that each of them is still intact and
supplies a solid floor for the storey immediately above. The narrow
stone staircase is still practicable in its first flight, but
fragmentary and rather unsafe beyond that. In its general appearance the
Cumbrae castle is very similar to that of Portencross, over the water.
It is probable that they both date from the same period, and are the
work of the same builder. Both belonged to the Boyd family.
At the present day the Wee Cumbrae, as it is popularly called, is
practically uninhabited. At its westermost point it has a lighthouse
with the usual staff, and opposite the castle itself there are two
houses serving, the one as a shooting-box, the other as a dwelling for
the present tenant's gamekeeper. Closer examination of the island,
particularly in winter, when the ground is free from bracken, reveals
the remains of a dozen or more cottages, which tell of the existence in
former days of a small colony on the less exposed half of it.
In the last year of the sixteenth century several of the families that
composed the small population were of the name of Montgomery. The castle
itself was inhabited by Robert Boyd of Badinhaith. He was a man of some
initiative, and had formed a plan for the building of a harbour for "the
commone welle and benefite of the haill liegeis of this realme haveing
ony trade and handling in the west seyis". In the year 1599, as a first
step towards the accomplishment of this praiseworthy scheme, he had
purchased "eleven score of joists of oak of twenty-four foot long and a
foot and a half of the square". The cost of each joist was £8, and the
whole outlay amounted to £1760. Although this, being in Scots currency,
represented less than £150 sterling, the sum in view of the value of
money in those days was not inconsiderable.
Whatever may have been the relation in which Robert Boyd stood to the
other inhabitants of the Little Cumbrae, their attitude towards him was
distinctly hostile. There is good reason to believe that these immediate
neighbours of his were not all respectable, peace-abiding folk, but that
the island served as a convenient refuge for "rebels, fugitives, and
ex-communicates". And it is quite intelligible that these outlaws did
not approve of the laird's enterprise, one of the results of which would
be to bring their sea-girt asylum into closer touch with the outer world
and its justice. Whether for this reason or for the mere sake of
plunder, it happened that one day, in 1599, some thirty men, with half a
dozen of the Montgomerys as their leaders, came to the fortalice with
hagbuts, pistols, culverins, swords, and other weapons, and violently,
"with engyne of smythis", broke up the doors and gates, and, after
having destroyed the glass windows, boards, and ironwork, "spuilzied"
the furniture, together with the materials intended for the construction
of the harbour. The perpetration of this outrage was followed by the
forcible occupation of the castle by four of the Montgomerys, who
fortified it "with men, ammunition, and armour", and "resetted within it
not only the disorderit thevis and lymmaris of the Ilis, but also such
other malefactors as, for eschewing punishment, resorted towards them".
The document[275] which contains the narrative of the "spulzie" on the
Little Cumbrae is interesting, not only because of the glimpse which it
affords of the state of the country three hundred years ago, but also,
and even more, because of the minute inventory which it includes of the
articles either "spulzied" or destroyed in the various parts and
chambers of Boyd's castle, together with the value put upon each article
or set of articles. In the first place the list indicates the internal
structural arrangement of such a dwelling. It consisted of a hall, a
kitchen, a chamber, a lower wester chamber and a high wester chamber, a
low easter chamber, a wardrobe, a brew-house, and vaults. The contents
of the several apartments do not point to luxurious appointment, even in
what may be taken as a fair specimen of an ancient Scottish house of the
larger and better sort.
The distinction between public rooms and bedrooms does not appear to
have existed. There were two or three "stand beds", that is to say, beds
with posts, as distinguished from beds that might be folded up, in each
of the "chambers". Most of them were of "fir", or plain deal, and valued
at £8 Scots, or 13s. 4d. sterling, each. The oak bedsteads, of which
there were only two, were set down at 20 marks, or about 23s. sterling
apiece. According to the same difference of wood, the "chalmer buirds",
as distinct from the "fauldand buird", or dining-table of the kitchen,
were worth £4 or £5 respectively. Three beds and a table constituted the
sole furniture of the "low easter chalmer" and of the "high wester
chalmer". The "lower wester chalmer" was the room which yielded most
loot to the raiders. In a cupboard within it they found a "silver piece"
of 17 oz. in weight and a cup with a silver foot weighing 7 oz., at £3,
that is to say, 5s. an ounce, besides "contracts, obligations,
evidents, and books, worth £2000." The same room contained a lockfast
chest, which served as a repository for "a doublet and breiks of dun
fustian cut out on tawny taffety, a pair of tawny worsted stockings, two
linen shirts, two pairs of linen sheets, four pillowslips, two pairs of
tablecloths, two broad cloths of linen of five ells in length, two broad
towels, and two dozen serviettes".
In the kitchen the utensils were on a scale as moderate as that of the
furniture through the whole house. The items which it supplies in the
inventory are: Two brass pots, two pans, two spits, a pair of andirons,
an iron ladle, a dozen and a half of plates, knives, forks, and spoons
for six people, a dozen trenchers, and a folding table. The only engines
of war contained in Boyd's fortalice consisted of two "cut-throat guns
of iron". They were located in the hall. The whole damage done by the
plunder of all the movables and the destruction of such fixtures as
doors and windows is estimated at £4776, 10s. 6d. Scots, that is,
well under £400 sterling. By no stretch of the imagination can the raid
of the Little Cumbrae be considered an event of historical importance.
It is rescued from insignificance, however, by virtue of the valuable
data which it has been the indirect means of preserving for the
information of posterity.