[William Kennedy]

I have a picture of the Kennedy Clan armory at Culzean Castle. I am trying to identify the swords in the picture. Anyone knowledgable in this area?

Bill

[Nathan Cole]

i recognized the picture and found it a book of "castles of scotland" by C. Gambaro. and some quick google searching of west lowland fencible regiment turned up this http://www.camelotintl.com/heritage/castles/s...ularm.html :

The Armoury
When Robert Adam designed this part of the house in 1777, it was two rooms divided by a wall on the columns. The inner part with the fireplace was the true Entrance Hall. The chimney piece is original and its decoration matches the overdoors and the frieze. The smaller room was the buffet room and here, although the frieze has been altered to match that of the old Entrance Hall, the overdoor is different, retaining Adam's Buffet room design. Following advice from the Armouries at the Tower of London, the entire collection was cleaned and restored by a job creation team.

Most of the weapons are those which were issued to the West Lowland Fencible Regiment when it was raised in the early years of the 19th century by the 12th Earl of Cassillis to meet the threat of invason by Napoleon I. Many of them where old-fashioned at the time. The most numerous are the light Dragoon flintlock pistols which from the large, oval display around the coat-of-arms of the Marquesses of Ailsa on the west wall. These date from 1775. The latticed frame is made up of one hundred and eleven Hanger swords.

The forty pistols arranged in a circle around the clock above the firplace date from the reign of King George II, and are Heavy Fragoon flintlock holster pistols engraved with the Royal Cypher. The various smaller pistols round the outside are all holster pistols of Turkish or North Africa origin.

I personally don't know much about the swords but what little i know does not not give me reason to doubt the above description

Nathan Cole

[William Kennedy]

Thank you, that's more than I had!

[Chuck Russell]

very nice.

i suggest looking into blair castle as well. a great assortment of arms there too

[E.B. Erickson]

It's hard to tell for sure from the photo, but the swords look like 1751 "pattern" infantry hangers.

--ElJay

[William Kennedy]

Thank you. That brings me a bit closer. Now the West Lowland Fencibles were stationed at Culzean Castle during the napolionic War. Is this a weapon that they would have been issued?

[Gordon Frye]

As I recall, a "Fencible" regiment is actually one that is pretty much a Sea-Service group that has been raised on land for land service in an emergency situation, but may be sent off to Sea if needed. It boils down to being merchant sailors and fishermen being formed together in a militia infantry unit. Thus the weaponry can be pretty ecclectic. Being sailors, they might be issued muskets with bayonets, or cutlasses and pistols, depending on what's available and what's expected of them, especially if they are supposed to do some harbour defence boatwork. Old '51 pattern Hangers, Light Dragoon pistols etc, would be perfect for this sort of operations, while older muskets and bayonets would be issued for pure land operations.

Again, this is off the top of my head from hazy memory, so it might well be somewhat faulty. Since I haven't the foggiest notion of how close to the coast said Culzean Castle is, this may or may not be pertinent.

Cheers,

Gordon

[William Kennedy]

Gordon,

It overlooks the sea. Maybole is the closest town. I'll have to ask Lord Ailsa the next time I see him. He was the last Kennedy to be born and raised at Culzean, although he was a child when the took residence in Cassilis House. He does give tours, so perhaps he would be able to direct me to the person that would know. The armoury was restored, so there should be someone who has all the information.