In this week’s “Know Your News” we dig out an article from our archives which gives some incredible historical information about the looting of the castle of Wee Cumbrae in 1599.

The destructive raid saw the small island community turn the tables on the rich middle-class owners of the castle, as accounts of the plunder have been preserved, and were recounted in an edition of our newspaper from 105 years ago.

In the edition of Saturday October 22 1910, when the “Largs and Millport Weekly News and District Advertiser” - to give it the formal title - came out, the newspaper cost one halfpenny and was broadsheet in size.

Adverts on the front included George Wood Dental Consulting Rooms at 4 Bath Street, Largs, with consulting hours on Wednesdays and Fridays, while James C Paton was offering the finest local lamb at 26 Main Street. The rise of the new phenomenon of the telephone can also be seen with two digit numbers such as Chas Watters Motor and Carriage Hirers at White Hart Stables in Largs, while A.M Burnside at 117 and 119 Main Street had a single digit number 6.

Page two of the edition carried the curious historical piece about “A Raid on The Wee Cumbrae”.

The descriptive article opens: “Just off the east side of that southern part of Little Cumbrae, and on low lying turf and weed covered rock, which according to the ebb and flood of the tide, is itself alternately a peninsula or an inslet, there stands the ruins of an ancient castle.” “It had a massive piece of masonry, the ground plan of which nearly forms 10 feet, and because of the inaccessibility of the island, was believed to be relic in better condition than many of its counterparts of the period, although the partition walls of several rooms had practically disappeared.

“The storey immediately above the vaults on the ground floor would appear to have consisted of one hall, if it were not for the fact that it contained two large chimneys.

“The ceilings are arched throughout, and it is doubtless due to this architectural peculiarity that each of them were still intact and supply a solid floor for the storey up above, “The narrow stone staircase is still practical in its first flight, but fragmentary and rather unsafe beyond that, the article stated.

“In its general appearance, the Wee Cumbrae Castle is very similar to that of Portencross over the water, It is probable that both date from the same period, and are the work of the same builder. Both belonged to the Boyd family.” Hints of former settlements also exist on the island according to the 1911 report: “At its present day, Wee Cumbrae is presently uninhabited.

“As its westermost point it has a lighthouse with the usual staff, and opposite the castle itself, there are two houses serving, the one as a shooting box, the other as a dwelling for the present tenant’s gamekeeper. Closer examination of the island, particularly in winter, when the ground is free from bracken, reveals the remains of a dozen or more cottages, the remains of which in former years of a small colony on the less exposed half of it.” In the last year of the 16th century, several of the families that composed the population of Wee Cumbrae had the name Montgomery.

The castle itself was inhabited by Robert Boyd of Badinbaith. He was a man of some initiative, and had formed a plan for the building of a harbour.

In the year 1599, in the first step towards accomplishing this praiseworthy scheme, he had purchased “eleven scores of joists of oak of 24 foot long, and a foot and a half of the square.” The cost of each joist was £8 and the whole outlay amounted to £1760.

Although this being in Scots currency, only represented £88 in English sterling, it was still seen as a considerable cost back in those times.

The revealing report of such distant times goes on to show the extreme hostility shown towards the bourgeois during this period.

The island served as a convenient refuge for ‘rebels, fugitives and ex-communicates’, and according to records, did not approve of the laird’s enterprise.

The ‘News’ reported: “Whether for this reason, or the sheer sake of plunder, it happened that one day, in 1599, some 30 men, with half-a-dozen of the Montgomerys as their leaders, came to the fortrice with pistols, swords and other weapons and destroyed various parts and chambers of the castle.” The only ammunition, or ‘engines of war’ as they were described, was discovered in the raid were ‘two cut-throat guns made of iron’ located in the hall area.

The ‘News’ reported: “The whole damage done by the plunder of all the removables, and the destruction of such fixtures as doors and windows estimated at £4776 10s 6d Scots, which was under £250 sterling.”