Ormond Castle
Encyclopedia
Ormond Castle, also known as Avoch Castle, was a powerful stronghold, overlooking the village of Avoch
Avoch
Avoch is a harbour-village located on the south-east coast of the Black Isle, on the Moray Firth.Ormond Castle or Avoch Castle was a stronghold built on the site and served as a royal castle to William the Lion; passed on to the Morays of Petty then Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway, upon his...

, on the Black Isle
Black Isle
The Black Isle is an eastern area of the Highland local government council area of Scotland, within the county of Ross and Cromarty. The name nearly always includes the article "the"....

, in the former county of Ross and Cromarty
Ross and Cromarty
Ross and Cromarty is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use...

, now part of Highland
Highland (council area)
Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. It shares borders with the council areas of Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross, and Argyll and Bute. Their councils, and those of Angus and...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

It is conceivable that it was one of the two castles known to have been erected during the reign of William the Lion
William I of Scotland
William the Lion , sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214...

 on the Black Isle, as royal fortalices.

De Moravia

By the thirteenth century, the castle was in the hands of the de Moravia
Clan Murray
Clan Murray is a Highland Scottish clan. The Murrays were a great and powerful clan whose lands and cadet houses were scattered throughout Scotland.- Origins of the Clan :...

s of Petty and was where they ruled their vast tracts of land across Moray
Moray
Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...

. Andrew de Moravia
Andrew Moray
Andrew Moray , also known as Andrew de Moray, Andrew of Moray, or Andrew Murray, was a prominent military leader of patriotic forces during the Scottish Wars of Independence. He led the rising in northern Scotland in the summer of 1297 against the occupation by King Edward I of England,...

 mustered the men of Moray to join King John Baliol at Ormond Castle following his dishonour in front of Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

, at the outset of Wars of Scottish Independence
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....

.

Douglas

The heiress to the de Moravias of Petty was Joanna of Bothwell, in 1362 she married Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway and later 3rd Earl of Douglas
Earl of Douglas
This page is concerned with the holders of the extinct title Earl of Douglas and the preceding feudal barons of Douglas, South Lanarkshire. The title was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1358 for William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas, son of Sir Archibald Douglas, Guardian of Scotland...

 who claimed her estates and titles de jure uxoris (by right of marriage). Ormond Castle was the caput of the Barony of Ormonde, and was created into an Earldom in 1445 for Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormonde
Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormonde
Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormonde was a Scottish Soldier and nobleman, a member of the powerful Black Douglases.He was the fourth son of James the Gross, 7th Earl of Douglas and his wife Beatrice Lindsay, daughter of Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney...

, third son of James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas
James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas
James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas, 1st Earl of Avondale , known as "the Gross", was a Scottish nobleman. He was the second son of Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas and Joan Moray of Bothwell and Drumsargard , d...

. Following the fall of the Black Douglases after the Battle of Arkinholm
Battle of Arkinholm
The Battle of Arkinholm was fought on May 1, 1455, at Arkinholm near Langholm in Scotland, during the reign of King James II of Scotland.Although a small action, involving only a few hundred troops, it was the decisive battle in a civil war between the king and the Black Douglases, the most...

 in 1455 and the execution of the earl, his properties, like those of his brothers, was forfeit. Ormond Castle was taken by the crown and regranted to George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus
George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus
George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, Lord Douglas, Abernethy and Jedburgh Forest was a Scottish Nobleman. He was the son of William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus and Margaret Hay of Yester. Known as the Great Earl of Angus, he succeeded to the Earldom following the death of his childless brother James...

. Angus, the "Red Douglas", was a kinsman and enemy of the Black Douglases, and became the new power from that mighty house.
The title of Earl of Ormonde was recreated for the elder son of the 1st Marquess of Douglas in 1651, but became extinct upon the death of Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Ormonde
Archibald Douglas, 2nd Earl of Forfar
Archibald Douglas, 2nd Earl of Forfar, 3rd Earl of Ormond was a Scottish peer.He was the only son of Archibald Douglas, 1st Earl of Forfar, and Robina Lockhart, the daughter of Sir William Lockhart of Lee and Robina Sewster.He inherited the titles Earl of Forfar and Earl of Ormond at the age of...

 in 1715, who died of wounds following the Battle of Sheriffmuir
Battle of Sheriffmuir
The Battle of Sheriffmuir was an engagement in 1715 at the height of the Jacobite rebellion in England and Scotland.-History:John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, standard-bearer for the Jacobite cause in Scotland, mustered Highland chiefs, and on 6 September declared James Francis Edward Stuart as King...

.

Munro

In 1568 Ormond Castle and the lands of Suddie in Avoch were acquired under feu from the Earls of Angus and Ormonde, by Andrew Munro, 5th of Milntown
Munros of Milntown
The Munros of Milntown were a family cadet branch of the Highland Clan Munro. They were the 'senior' cadet branch of the clan and spawned many cadet branches. They were frequently recorded as 'Monro' as well as Munro...

, also known as Andrew Munro of Newmore during his father's lifetime.

Cromwell

Ormond Castle was destroyed in the 1650s by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

, in order for him to build his fortress at Inverness. Only ruins of the castle remain today.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK