Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/89

 KINCLAVEN CASTLE 69 FIRST PERIOD Thirty-three years later, or in 1297, according to tradition and Henry the Minstrel, Wallace took Kinclaven, " a castell wondyr Fio. 47s. Kinclaven Castle. wycht." In June 1296 Edward i., in his progress northwards, visited Kinclaven, and stayed there one night. Henry describes an engagement between the. English garrison and Wallace some little distance from the castle, the defeat and flight of the former, pursued by the Scots towards their strength, where " Few men of fenss was left that place to kepe, Wemen and preistis wpon the wall can wepe : For weill thai wend the fleais was their lord ; To tuk him in thai maid thaim redy ford, Leit doun the bryg, kest up the yettis wide. The frayit folk entrit, and durst nocht byde. " Here Wallace and his followers stayed seven days, spoiled and wrecked the place, and under cloud of night betook themselves to the neigh- bouring woods, when " The contre folk, quhen it was lycht of day, Gret reik saw ryss, and to Kynclewyn thai socht : Bot wallis and stane, mar gud thar fand thai nocht." Although thus cast down, the castle was evidently put in order again, and in 1335 was, along with other strongholds, held by Edward in., then master of Scotland, but in the following year most of these castles, includ- ing Kinclaven, were recaptured by the Scots. Kinclaven never was a residence, but was purely a garrison castle. It must have been abandoned for many centuries, as old fruit-trees are growing in the courtyard, and probably when the Minstrel wrote, his description was true to his time as to ours " In till Kinclewyn thar duelt nane agayne ; Thar was left nocht hot brokyn wallis in playne."