Place of Sorbie
The present Tower, or is it was called in the Middle Ages "Place of Sorbie" was built about 1550-1575 and is situated seven miles south of Wigtown (in Galloway). It was occupied until 1748 after which it was neglected and is now in a ruinous state. In its day it was a structure of considerable importance and may have been preceded by an earlier castle as close by is a mound which MacGibbon and Ross in their work, "The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland" mention as a "moat or artificial mound', and this may wen be the motte hill on which was built the wooden type Norman Castle of the Viponts. In 1993 the Archaeological Department of Glasgow University carried out a dig on the motte finding shards of pottery identified as coming from Bordeau around 1250. They also found pieces of coins of Henery III of France, 1574-1589. Traces of the base of a flying bridge were found such as shown in the Bayeux tapestry. At the same time the group uncovered a fine cobbled road running east from the castle courtyard.
The castle is "L" shaped and is typical of the period
when, due to the marriage of the grim square Scots Tower with the
graceful chateau architecture of France, many fine castles were
erected. They present a combination of strength, vigour and grace
unrivaled in Europe, with pepper-pot turrets, wheel stairs from first
floor level, crow-stepped gables, corbelling and heraldic panels.
This was a tremendous building period in Scots History brought
about by the Reformation, which was responsible for the distribution
of the church lands among the gentry. It was at this time that the
Laird of Sorbie acquired the Church lands of Kilfillan, and in the
fond hope of stabilizing a country torn by feud and violence the King
insisted on the erection on each estate a fortalice as a refuge for
the common people. In practice many a Laird used his Tower to oppress
his neighbors, and as we see from the Privy Council records, the
Hannays in their dealings with the Murrays of Broughton were no
exception in this respect.
The Tower was protected by a marsh which in the winter was a sheet
of water extending from Sorbie Kirk to the Castle. In former times the
Tower was not, as now, surrounded by a dense wood. Douglas in his book
of Galloway (1745) gives the following description: "Looking
eastward across the lake, on the extreme verge like a lonely sentinel
standing black against the sky on a treeless mound surrounded by a
fosse fed by a burn which issued from the Loch Longcaster, they
descried the gaunt castle of Sorbie. When they reached it they found a
square baronial tower of the 15th Century, a stronghold of
the Hannays, a family who dealt heavy blows in times of war from
Flodden Field to the Gates of Rhodes and for some such service bore on
their helmet the rare heraldic of a Crescent and a Fitched
Cross".
The close approaches to the Tower were covered by five corbelled
turrets and gunloops. The entrance is at the re-entrant angle on the
East side and opens on to the foot of the staircase. The door was
secured by a draw-bar housed in long slots in either jamb.
The tower was probably built by Alexander Ahanna of Sorbie, who
succeeded his father Patrick after the latter's murder in 1543, At the
time of the building of the Tower, the Ahannas were at the height of
their power. Their lands stretched right across the Machars of
Galloway to such an extent that it was known as Machars Hannay.
Elevations of Sorbie
Tower
