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GALLANT GRAEME’S CASTLE
There’s apparently not much to see and yet there is everything. The long grass partly hides where a deep moat and ditches once stood. The fragile remains of low stone walls look as if they might not stand another winter. Close- knit fir plantations surround this near-secret place and partly block what were eagle-like views. Once it rang to the shouts of fighting men, the jingle of horse harness, the clash of axes, swords and spears on body-armour and shields. Here, too, minstrels and pipers played and great men and their ladies discussed affairs of State and wondered if their lives were about to be cut short. These obscure ruins stand on land owned by the Forestry Commission since 1937 and the Commission has protected this site by leaving the area of the ruins clear of trees. This was the castle of Sir John de Graeme (Graham), that gallant knight from an illustrious house, who became Sir William Wallace’s faithful lieutenant and who died fighting at Wallace’s side in the disastrous Battle of Falkirk on 22nd July, 1298. Some folk argue that the ruins are now so out of sight that it is difficult to become excited about them, but they have a way of getting the thought processes going. The sites setting on a prominent 800-ft knoll overlooking the Carron Valley in central Scotland is in the middle of a scenically attractive and under-visited area. The castle ruins stand on the watershed between the rivers Carron and Endrick and where once there was moorland, cleared land holdings and hillside grazing there is now only a handful of small farms and scattered houses. The giant and modern Carron reservoir fills the lower ground and the hillsides are mainly covered with conifers. It is no accident John de Graeme’s family built the castle here. It dominated key passes and routes running through the hills and glens; nowadays nearby minor roads link up communities like Denny, Kilsyth, Stirling and Fintry. Graham names pepper Scottish history and they became lords, earls, marquises and dukes. Popularly known as the gallant Grahams, they originally came from a powerful Anglo-Norman family. The earliest of the name in Scotland is believed to be William de Graeme, a magnate at King David’s court in the first half of the 12th century. The Carron Valley castle was the principal stronghold of the Graham barony of Dundaff which as early as 1237 was in the possession of Sir David de Graeme, the founder of the House of Montrose and the father or grandfather of Sir John de Graeme. Viscount Dundaff is one of the dukedom’s titles. Dundaff Hill lies a few miles from the castle close to Carron Bridge and its modern inn now sited at crossroads; little holiday cabins can also be seen hugging the banks of the River Carron. This hill is bounded on the north side by a small reservoir and a plantation. The name Dundaff probably derives from dun, a fort, and the Gaelic daimh (pronounced dav), a deer. There is a popular belief that the Grahams descend from “Gramus” who partly demolished the Romans’ Antonine Wall which links the Firths of Clyde and Forth , but this is generally dismissed by modern historians. Visitors to this under-appreciated part of Scotland have to turn their mind back to a time when much of the straths of Endrick and the Carron Rivers were known as the Carron Bog, when other marshes, bogs and forests were plentiful, and when Scotland’s population was only around 500,000. The feudal system operated and some nobles owned land on both sides of the Border, a reason why some were slow, to say the least, to join the campaigns for freedom led by Wallace. Small, but flourishing burghs promoted trade and links with other lands. It’s ironic that Wallace’s travels probably took him across the line of the infant Bannock Burn, which rises in these hills. Sir John de Graeme certainly crossed this line and both men, of course, could not know that this small burn was to give its name a few years later to Scotland’s most famous victory in battle. When exploring Earl’s Hill to the south-west of Stirling (now the site of communications masts), where the burn rises on the hill’s north side and also on the south side of Touchadam Muir, you realise that you're were about three miles from Sir John de Graeme’s castle. The hill’s “Earl” name may be linked to his lands. The rough wildness of much of the land at that time is said to be one of the reasons why the use of cavalry did not markedly develop in Scotland. The tradition of fighting on foot led to the famous schiltrons, “hedgehogs” of long spears which formed tight, defensive rings and which when composed of experienced, closely- drilled men, could also press home attacks and defeat cavalry. They were susceptible to archers, as was seen at the Battle of Falkirk and even during an anxious time at Bannockburn.
The area covered by Sir John’s castle ruins can be walked around in a few minutes and the modern Ordnance Survey map only marks this site as “Motte” which, of course, means a steep mound, the main feature of many 11th and 12th- century castles. The whole site is actually a motte-and-bailey castle, a defence system thought to be Roman in origin, consisting of an earthen or stone motte carrying a wooden tower with a bailey (or open court), an enclosure ditch and palisade. Bailey is the term applied to the external wall surrounding the castle or keep and later it was applied to one of the internal courts. Sir John’s castle had an almost square-on plan with a central platform surrounded by a l8ft wide ditch. Experts have pointed out that the rise from the bottom of the ditch suggests it was cut through rock or tightly-packed soil, or that the slopes were faced with stone. The wall fragments show that lime mortar was used and there may have been a drawbridge across the ditch. As is the case with most similar centres of power there would be clusters of houses with heather- thatched roofs close to the castle and Sir John could probably call on many men from these now near-empty hills and glens. Most of what we know about him comes from the famous poem “The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campiun Schir William Wallace” written by Henry the Minstrel (1470-92) during the reign of James IV. Popularly known as Blind Harry, his lengthy poem in rhyming couplets became widely popular although it has to be said that he is sometimes an unreliable source. It was translated into modern English in the 18th century by poet and soldier William Hamilton of Gilbertfield and re-issued in our own day by Luath Press. We know that Wallace was probably wounded in the time before the Falkirk battle when pursued by Edward’s forces and ignored by Scots lords who were more interested in preserving their estates rather than joining in what often seemed to be a lost independence cause. Wallace swam across the River Forth and was sheltered by a widow. His friends then obtained horses and it was decided he should lie low. They almost certainly headed for Sir John’s castle. The first time Wallace visited the building it was home to Sir John’s father, the patriarchal and elderly Sir John, who was probably aghast at this by now well-known rebel landing on him. Young Sir John entered the cause with relish and produced a band of fresh fighters. Young Sir John’s wife was the eldest daughter of Tom Halliday, a nephew of Sir Richard Wallace of Riccarton, head of a powerful family, whose three sons joined Wallace. Blind Harry has a moving scene in which the elder Graham, now too old to fight, charges his son to swear on his sword that he will stand and fight by the side of Wallace. Blind Harry writes of the battle that “Sir John de Graeme came also speedily, attended with a glorious company . . .“ He is believed to have had 30 men at his disposal and in the period before the battle was with Wallace when Lochmaben Castle and Crawford Castle were captured by him. Sir John returned to Dundaff for a time and may have been wounded by the time Falkirk was fought. He had a reputation for great courage and during the siege of Perth Wallace’s men made “bastalies”, possibly a term for covered ladders or tall, wooden siege towers. They filled in the ditches and swarmed up the walls and into the houses. All the garrison were killed and Sir John headed the onslaught. Thousands of words have been written about the Battle of Falkirk. Historians differ over its precise location and the details of the fighting. Should Wallace have fought at all? However, his enemy had food shortages, nobles and troops wishing themselves at home and Welsh archers who came close to mutiny. A protracted guerrilla war might have worked and Edward I, by then aged 60, might have sought terms. Wallace’s victory at Stirling Bridge encouraged his troops and they were confident they would win. Wallace said famously, “I have brought you to the ring, now let me see you dance.” The Scots, however, were crushed although many fought bravely. The English heavy cavalry and archers proved decisive. Blind Harry’s poem speaks of “that renowned knight Sir John de Graeme”, “the noble Graeme” and “the gallant Graeme”. It describes how Sir John “bravely advanced”, how he killed an English knight but another knight speared him and he fell, mortally wounded. The poem runs: When Wallace saw the gallant Graeme was gone, how did it rack him to the very bonne.... With Sir John’s death Wallace was to lose one of his best commanders: Enraged at the loss of Graeme that day, he cut down all that came his way. Blind Harry goes on to say that when Wallace saw Sir John’s corpse he jumped from his horse and did embrace that knight of high renown. Sir John is called a martyr and Wallace says he will be avenged. The deeds of this brave man who lost his life, home and lands in following Wallace are not as well known as they should be. Not many folk are aware that Sir John's grave is in the kirkyard of the original Parish Church of Scotland, now Falkirk Old and St Modan’s. There is also another grave there to another comrade of Wallace, also killed at Falkirk, Sir John Stewart of Bonkle, there's also a huge Celtic Cross in memory to the men of Bute who fought and died for Wallace in 1298. People who do remember this heroic soldier include the staff and pupils of Falkirk’s Graeme High School which bears his name. Every day they pass a print of Sir John, originally painted by local artist Murray Robertson, in the entrance hall. There is also a local tradition that an old yew tree which stood on the edge of Falkirk’s Victoria Park marked where Sir John fell.
Over the centuries the kirkyard became a place of pilgrimage for many people, particularly after the publication of Blind Harry’s poem. Sir John Stewart lies under what appears to be a 13th-century slab. Sir John de Graeme’s grave has been much modified over the years with the addition of an effigy and a series of ornate, engraved stones. One inscription reads: Here lyse Sir John the Graeme, baith wight and wise, And of the chiefs who saved Scotland thrise, Ane better knight not to the world was lent Nor was gude Graeme of truth and hardirnent. Another, Latin, inscription can be translated thus: Of mind and courage stout Wallace’s true Achates Here lies Sir John the Graeme Felled by the English baties. (Achates in classical mythology became a byword for loyalty and dependability. Batie is a dog!) Some scholars say the last line should read: “Killed in war by the English, 22nd July, 1298.)
The author of this article, would like to thank Mr Cameron Graham, chairman of the Clan Graham Association of Scotland, and to retired lecturer and active historian and musician Ian Scott, editor of Calatria (the old name for East Stirlingshire), the journal of the Falkirk Local History Society. Ian directed him to sections of a book written in 1869 by John Reddoch McLuckie, a well-known Falkirk antiquarian, entitled “The Old Kirk Yard, Falkirk”. He dedicated his book to “the members of The Stirlingshire Charitable Society and Sons of the Rock (men born in Stirling) on the occasion of their visit to Falkirk on 8th May that year”. The author described the main tombs in the Kirkyard; distinguished visitors included Robert Burns in 1787. In 1860 the Sir John de Graeme Lodge of Oddfeflows, a Masonic and charitable organisation, launched a public subscription to erect railings and a Gothic cupola to enclose the tomb. When putting in a new foundation workmen found traces of two bodies, one of which was possibly that of Angus MacDonell, second son of Glen Garry, accidentally shot when Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s army occupied the town after their victory over General Hawley’s Hanoverian army in 1746. It is appropriate that the grief-stricken clansmen used Sir John de Graeme’s grave as a fitting place to bury their revered officer. There is also a local tradition that a sword used by Sir John still exists and it is currently in the care of the Masonic Lodge No. 46 of Auchterarder in Perthshire. It is recorded that a Mr Malcolm, the Right Worshipful Master of the Lodge, wrote that William Graham, of Orchill, gifted the sword to the Lodge of which he was Master in 1792. He was a descendant of Sir John and it was assumed by the recipients that the sword was the original weapon. It is a hallowed relic for many people. At one stage it fell into the hands of the Sutherland Fencibles regiment and they accidentally broke six inches off it and the shortened blade was reshaped to a point. Workers at the Falkirk Iron Company made railings for the grave and in the 1860s made another sword which was also later broken. A rhodern special exhibition in Falkirk to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the battle resulted in a new sword being made. The money for this sword was raised by the Falkirk Local History Society with support from Falkirk Council and the Sir William Wallace Grand Lodge of Scotland Free Colliers. The Graham Society attended the unveiling by the Duke of Montrose on 22nd July, 1999. The Auchterarder Lodge sent “their” sword to Falkirk Iron Works where a casting was made in bronze and the Provost paid the messenger’s expenses. One side of the blade said: Casting of the sword used by Sir John de Graeme at the Battle of Falkirk, 22nd July 1298. . . (and on the other side): Cast at Falkirk Ironworks, 3rd May 1869, from an original in the possession of the Auchterarder No. 46 Lodge of Freemasons. What now for the little castle in the woods? We know it was destroyed by Edward I’s men and lay almost forgotten. The Forestry Commission have a management plan with Historic Scotland which is revised every five years and have erected a little sign. There are litter clean-ups. Now comes the good news that the little, hidden castle with its faint outlines, deep-cut ditch and whispering trees is to have a near- neighbour and a kind of re-birth. Actor, dance and theatre tutor Charlie Allen, of Kincardine, the chief executive of the Clanranald Trust, is heading a project to build a near- replica castle which will be used for educational, cultural and tourism purposes a few miles away close to the B818 Denny to Fintry road. It is sited near the Carron dam and will be larger than John de Graeme’s castle, but motte-and-bailey in shape and will have parking space and toilet facilities. Known as the Duncarron Project, the castle is scheduled to be completed in 2009. Money is being raised by the Trust who seek sponsors. Charlie plays in a pipe band who give part of their earnings to cultural projects organised by the Clanranald Trust in Scotland which does excellent work supporting Scottish cultural projects in schools and communities. Meantime it is good to know a new chapter in the history of John de Graeme is now being written.
We'd Like To Thank Rennie and The Sots Magazine For This Adapted Work Original Article Appeared In The March 2007 Issue All Art Work Used With Kind Permission Of Murray Robertson
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