Qualla: Skelmorlie Castle

Skelmorlie Castle: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joseph Swan 1829, Public domain. Sir Robert Montgomerie, third baronet of Skelmorlie, had a habit that troubled even his servants. After his wife died, he would descend into the burial vault of Skelmorlie Aisle and pray there, alone, for hours. He stayed long enough that the household began to speak of it. When he died in 1685, the lead coffin laid in that same vault carried an inscription he had chosen himself. Translated from the Latin, it reads: I was dead before myself; I anticipated my proper funeral; alone, of all mortals, following the example of Caesar. The Caesar he meant was Charles V, who famously rehearsed his own obsequies. Some Scottish lairds collected horses or paintings. Sir Robert collected the experience of being dead.

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Image: Joseph Swan 1829 | Public domain

Skelmorlie Castle: Five Hundred Years of Stone

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TravisNygard, CC BY 3.0. The castle dates from 1502, built on the eastern shore of the Firth of Clyde at the north-western corner of Ayrshire. Its early ownership runs through a tangle of Cunninghame and Montgomery family arrangements typical of medieval Scotland. The Cunninghames of Kilmaurs held the la...

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Image: TravisNygard | CC BY 3.0

Skelmorlie Castle: The Baronet and Patrick Maxwell

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.5. Sir Robert Montgomerie, the seventh laird, was knighted by James VI and made a baronet by Charles I in 1628. His path to the title was bloody. Patrick Maxwell of Newark Castle in Port Glasgow had killed Sir Robert's father and brother, leaving the young Robert as the new heir of ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.5

Skelmorlie Castle: The Painted Aisle

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Soundofbute, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sir Robert Montgomerie of Skelmorlie commissioned the Skelmorlie Aisle in the kirk of Largs in 1636 as a family mausoleum. The kirk itself is long gone, demolished centuries ago. The Aisle survives, in the care of Historic Environment Scotland and open in summer, with its remarka...

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Image: Soundofbute | CC BY-SA 4.0

Skelmorlie Castle: The Last Direct Heir

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jamesx12345, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1731, Hugh Montgomerie of Busbie, Lord Provost of Glasgow, purchased the castle from the fourth baronet and inherited the title. He had served as a commissioner negotiating the Union with England, sat in Scotland's last parliament, and was appointed to the first parliament of ...

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Image: Jamesx12345 | CC BY-SA 3.0