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It was the home of his mother, and therefore likely, under the peculiar circumstances of her marriage, to have been the birth-place of her eldest boy. The fact, too, that Bruce made the seizure of Turnberry the first step in that grand series of efforts which ended with Bannockburn, points to his early connection with it. While the trust he reposed in his Carrick men, and the care he afterwards showed for the building itself, as well as those wide lands of which Turnberry was then the centre-all point towards this old ruin having a right to be regarded as sacred ground by every Scotsman. Bruce was born 21st March, 1274. There are only two outstanding historical events connected with Turnberry. The first was a meeting of the Scottish nobles held here in 1286, to take steps towards promoting Bruce's claim to the Scottish throne. And the second was the above-mentioned attempt made by Bruce in the spring of 1307, to recover the Castle from the English into whose hands it had fallen. This attempt was only partially successful, although ultimately it led to the withdrawal of the intruders. There is very little of the old building left now. Still it is interesting to mark the ditch which defended the castle on the landward side, and to put one's fingers into the groove of the old portcullis which in those days did duty for a gate, and to scramble down into the cave which leads out into the sea, and which must have served the castle inmates as a harbour. A modern Lighthouse now occupies the place where once armed warriors marched, and watchful sentries stood. But it needs little effort of imagination to people the spot again with all its martial life, even to the little toddling steps of him who was one day to become Scotland's greatest king. |
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This
is probably the oldest building in Carrick, and dates back as far as the twelfth
century-perhaps earlier. It was the seat of the ancient Earls of Carrick, one of
whom founded the 
