Barnweil Tower - (The Wallace Monument), Cragie, South Ayrshire, Scotland.
Posted by: 
MeerRescue
N 55° 31.977 W 004° 31.568
30U E 403677 N 6155157
A bronze plaque sited next to the Barnweil Tower a Wallace Monument on Barnweil Hill, Cragie, South Ayrshire, Scotland. KA1 5NE
Waymark Code: WMEAV5
Location: Southern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/29/2012
Views: 5
A bronze plaque sited at Barnweil Tower (The Wallace Monument), a Gothic tower
built on top of Barnweil Hill in the parish of Craigie, East Ayrshire. It was
built to commemorate William Wallace at
the time of an upsurge in the Scottish desire for self-determination, predating
the 1869 Wallace Monument at Stirling.
It is said to mark the spot where Wallace, standing on this elevated site,
watched the substantial grain barns of Ayr burning. His men had set the barns
ablaze after trapping the English garrison inside as they were being used as
barracks for the soldiers. Wallace's men waited outside and slaughtered any
soldier who managed to escape the fires.
The Ayr Advertiser of 12 October 1854 carried an advertisement calling for
designs for the monument to be submitted to W F Love of Beith by 1 January 1855.
The Ayr Advertiser of 30 October 1856 stated that the monument was designed by
William Dobie of Beith, and was built by `Mr Snodgrass'. The Dobies were a
well-to-do professional family with antiquarian interests. No evidence has been
found of any call for public subscription and the Dobie family may have financed
the construction of the tower themselves. Robert Snodgrass senior, son of
William Snodgrass, mason of Beith, practised as an architect-builder in Beith. The
land was donated by Brigadier-General James George Smith-Neil of Barnweill House
in 1855.
There are three more bronze
plaques affixed to three sides of the monument. More details of the inscriptions
on them may be had
here.