Druchtag Motte

About Druchtag Motte

Druchtag Motte is a pudding basin manmade hill, at the north end of Mochrum village and would have once been topped with a wooden castle. There may also have been ancillary buildings on a lower level, such as a kitchen, chapel and courtyard, surrounded by a ditch or palisade. We do not know who the original occupants or builders were, whether native Gallovidian lord, or perhaps the new incoming Scotto-Normans, brought in to Galloway to settle it in the 12th Century and bring it within the influence of the Kingdom of Scots. The motte is still within state guardianship – nearby landowner, Sir Herbert Maxwell of Monreith, was the first Chairman of the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland from 1908, and many local landmarks were brought into state care, thanks to his personal influence in the area. Mochrum Kirk, nearby, which is still a place of worship, probably replaced Barhobble in the 12th Century, but its present incarnation is a pretty T-Plan Kirk, built with a “Laird’s Loft” for the local landowner. Sir Herbert Maxwell recalls the lengthy church services he attended there as a boy. At the church you can collect a “pilgrim stamp” by scanning the QR Code on the interpretation board with your mobile phone, to prove that you have completed a stage of the 149-mile Whithorn Way.