page_title: Hill of Beith Castle
section_title: The Court Hill
hierarchical_section_title: Hill of Beith Castle / The Court Hill
caption_attribution_description: The Court Hill at Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_page_description: The old Barony and castle, fortalice, or tower house of Hill of Beith lay in the feudal Regality of Kilwinning, within the Baillerie of Cunninghame, and the Sherrifdom of Ayr, now the Parish of Beith, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_section_description: The placename 'Hill of Beith' itself refers not to the hill, but instead to that rare survival of feudal power, the 'Court Hill' or Moot hill, that sits close to Boghall House, beside the burn that runs down from the site of the old Loch Brand to eventually reach its confluence with the Powgree Burn. The hill is composed of soil and boulders and measures 17 paces in diameter at the bottom, and 6 feet 8 inches high. The flat top, which is flat is not totally circular, and is 8 paces in diameter.
  As feudal lords, the abbots of Kilwinning Abbey and their secular successors held and presided over courts of law on this hill, it being the 'Caput of the Barony of Beith', the site where the legal entity of the barony was physically located. The dissolution of the monasteries ended the abbots involvement in the mid 16th century. Such court hills were sometimes built from soil deliberately brought to the site from all the different parts of the lands of the barony.
  The small copse next to the castle site is known as the 'Hangman's Wood' locally, suggesting that this was the site of the barony gallows.
caption: The Court Hill of Beith
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