Cranshaws Castle

Cranshaws Castle or Cranshaws Tower is a privately owned 15th-century pele situated by the village of Cranshaws in Berwickshire, Scotland. The building is still in use as a residence, and is protected as a category A listed building.HistoryThe lands of Cranshaws were originally part of the Barony of Bothwell, which barony was created for David Olifard (ancestor of the current chief of the Oliphants) by King Malcolm IV in the mid 12th century. Occupancy (typically, this would have been a feu - the superiority remaining with the Barony of Bothwell) was then granted to a younger Olifard son, with whose line the estate remained for some centuries.In 1329, the senior representative of the younger line but now 7th chief, William Oliphant, Lord of Aberdalgie, died and amongst the properties which he left was Cranshaws, which he had inherited from his Olifard forebears.In 1336/7, William Olyphant’s lands of Cranschawes and Hatherwick (Hedderwick) were in the hands of Edward III., on account of this William’s forfeiture.In the meantime, the Barony of Bothwell passed in 1252 by marriage to the Morays on the extinction of the senior line of Oliphants. In 1362 Joanna de Moravia, heiress of Bothwell, married Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas. Their son and heir was Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas (1372–1424). In 1401 Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas bestowed Cranshaws upon Sir John Swinton, 14th of that Ilk whom the Earl calls "dilectus consanguineus nostra" (our beloved cousin)., thus dispossessing the Oliphants. Following Swinton's death at the Battle of Homildon Hill the following year, the lands passed to his son Sir John Swinton, 15th of that Ilk, who is thought to have built the existing castle (it is not known what kind of building the Oliphants had).