page_title: Lambroughton
section_title: The Law Mount or Moot Hill
hierarchical_section_title: Lambroughton / Other items of interest in the locality / The Law Mount or Moot Hill
caption_attribution_description: English: The Moot Hill or Law Mount above the River Annick near Castleton Farm, East Ayrshire, Scotland. A photograph taken by me in 2005 for this article
context_page_description: Lambroughton is a village in the old Barony of Kilmaurs, Scotland. This is a rural area famous for its milk and cheese production and the Ayrshire or Dunlop breed of cattle.
  Although Kilmaurs is in the council area of East Ayrshire, Lambroughton is now in fact in North Ayrshire, part of a narrow finger of land included in that council area with the parish of Dreghorn.
context_section_description: The Law Mount (OS maps), Castleton Law mount, Moat Hill or Moot Hill overlooking Lainshaw House and above Castleton (previously Over or High Castleton) is an artificial mound which was thought to have a bailey and therefore be a castle motte, hence the name of the farms. Linge is of the opinion that the supposed bailey, clearly visible from the road under the appropriate light conditions, is a natural geographic feature. The mound is 19 m in diameter and 3.5 m in height. At the top its diameter is 12 m and seen by satellite imagery it is clearly too small to have been a motte, however it may originally have only been an observation post. It is locally known as 'Pinkie Hill' or the 'Jerry's helmet'.
  Carmel Bank House was formerly known as 'Mot' or 'Mote' House and was the site of a Motte Hill.
  Another possibility that suggests the secondary use of the mound and fits with its more recent local names, is that it was the site of the Justice Hill where proclamations of the Lainshaw Castle or possibly the Lambroughton Baronial Court's judgements and sentence was carried out here. For serious crimes the men were hung here and women were drowned in the Annick Water below the mound. This situation, known as the feudal Barony right of 'pit and gallows' existed at many other sites, such as at Kilmarnock, Aiket, Ardrossan, Dalry, Largs, Carnell, Giffen and Mugdock where the castle, mound and lochan have this scenario attached to their history. The Boyds, Lords of Kilmarnock, had their gallows at Gallows-Knowe which stood in Wellington street. Often the mounds were wooded and a dule tree may have been used as the gallows. Brehons or Judges administered justice from these 'Court Hills', especially in the highlands. Aiket castle had a "court hill" mound nearby, as did Riccarton which is now the site of a church and the village of Tinwald exists near Dumfries its name is derived from the same root as that of the famous Tynwald parliament site in the Isle of Man.
  High Castleton had been a part of the Robertland Estate and was farmed by William Smith and his spouse Jessie Gibson in the late 18th century. William died aged 83 on 14 December 1913, whilst Jessie died aged 64 on 7 April 1895. They were both buried at the Laigh Kirk, Stewarton. The fields between the Law Mount and Laigh Castleton were known by the quaint names of East and West Tinkerdyke Parks.
caption: The Moot Hill or Law Mount above the River Annick near Castleton Farm
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