Sorbie Tower of the Clan Hannay (Hanna)

THE destination for my visit to Galloway was Sorbie Tower.  This is the ancient seat of the Clan Hannay (Hanna).  

It is a ruin, having been abandoned in the in the mid 17 th century.  (Let’s just say the Clan Hannay got on the wrong side of a feud with the Clan Murray… and were outlawed!!  They also didn’t get along (to be mild) with the Clan Kennedy or Dunbar.  Himself had too much fun with that tid-bit of information…). 

It is now owned by the Clan Hannay Society (of which I will be a member by the end of this month) and has received several grants towards restoration.  That is our clan tartan.

Here’s what it looked like in its glory days of the late 1500s.

Here is what it looked like when the Clan Hannay got it back in the mid 1960s.

And here it is Oct 2011.

From the inside.  Four stories tall, it was an impressive building.

This window was probably quite beautiful.

They had to put bars on the lower windows to keep out vandals.

The other side shows its “L” shape.

Beams support the old stairwell. 

OLD graffiti!

And this is the motte… the first dwelling place dating to the 1100s!!

This is clansman David (I think…sorry!) Hannah, who were there doing maintenance work over the weekend.  He very kindly stopped what he was doing and opened the tower so we could see inside.  That was such a blessing for me!  

He told us about the restoration work, history and a bit about the clan.  He even tried to arrange for us a visit with the clan chief, but unfortunately they were on holiday (vacation).  Drat!  

(Mr. Hannah, if you read this… thank you so much for everything!)