The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157044   Message #3718452
Posted By: Gutcher
23-Jun-15 - 09:12 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Barbara Allen
Subject: RE: Origins: Barbara Allen
Still OT
Steve.
Auchruglen Castle was the home of the Loudons of that Ilk.
The daughter and heiress of Lambkin De Loudon married a Reginald Crawford in the year 1200.
It was the home of the Crawfords of Loudon for five generations.
In c1320 the Crawford heiress married a Donald Campbell and they continued to reside in Auchruglen until it was burned in the late 14th C. by the Kennedys of Bargany, this event giving rise to a ballad, I have not found an exact date for this as yet.
For obvious reasons the Campbells abandoned the site of Auchruglen and built the first Loudon Castle on the opposite [North] side of the river Irvine. This Castle was also attacked by a band of Kennedys some 200 years after the burning of Auchruglen, they being of the Cassilies branch of that family this giving rise to the 19th. C. report mentioned in a previous post that the ballad was founded on a 16th. C. attack.

If, as the experts claim, ballads founded on fact are produced within 30 years of the actual event the finding of the ballad based on the burning of Auchruglen becomes important as this event predates the burning of the house of Rhodes in the North East of Scotland by two centuries.