Did the McCulloh's own this castle? I remember as a boy of maybe 10 or 12, Grandpa Charles McCulloh, Sr. gave me a black and white photograph of the "McCulloh Castle." This castle is Cardoness Castle and it seems we were actually associated with at least five castles in Scotland. But, before we begin, remove from your mind images of Edinburg Castle and the famous Cinderella (Liechtenstein) Castle in Germany; our castles were not quite so grand. Even so, as a child it seemed an incredible thing to know our ancestors had actually lived in a castle, even if it didn't quite look like a castle! Grandpa didn't know too much about the castle and it wasn't until the last several years that I've learned some of the history and legends surrounding this castle.
Cardoness Castle, the most famous of the five castles, is located on a rocky ridge along the River Fleet Estuary in Kurcudbrightshire in southern Scotland. Cardoness is of the tower-house design. The castle is 56-feet tall to the battlements and is six stories tall including vaulted basement levels. The total floor space of the castle is 3,444 sq. ft. The walls at the ground floor are 10-feet thick with a single entrance door and the upper floors have only a few small windows. "Gun-loop" openings intended for the defense of the castle with hand-guns exist in the ground floor walls. It was always difficult for me, when looking at the castle photograph, to visualize how a six story castle "worked." Was it just a big tall space? How did a family live in a building like this? What was in there? Well, a picture is worth a thousand words and the cut-away illustration by David Simon, from the book, Scotland's Castles, by Chris Tanbraham, answers a lot of questions. The illustrated roof structure, which is long gone, finally makes sense of the triangular stone structures, visible in most photographs, jutting up from the top of the main rectangular building. A spiral staircase in one corner of the building serves all the floors and beautiful stone fireplaces, cupboards and window seats are still preserved in the castle. While writing this article I found several web sites with excellent photographs of the interior rooms of the castle. The best of these sites is www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk. This site also includes additional colorful historical accounts of the McCullohs as well as a photo of a marvelous model of what the grounds would have looked like with all of the outbuildings and courtyard walls in place. In June, 2010 my wife Elisha and I had the pleasure of spending three days in Gatehouse of Fleet and took many photos of these castles. You can see a slide show of Cardoness Castle here.
