Herbertshire Castle

[4] It was badly damaged in a fatal fire in 1914 which claimed three lives, and lay in ruins until its demolition in the 1950s.

[3] Herbertshire is believed to have taken its name from one Herbert de Camera, who donated tracts of land in Dunipace to Cambuskenneth Abbey about the year 1200.

During the time that Herbert made the donations to the Abbey, the lands fell within the jurisdiction of the barony of Dunipace.

John Douglas was killed by order of Sir David Barclay of Brechin some time before Shrove Tuesday in 1350.

In 1369 the estate was in the hands of Archibald, Earl Douglas, and when his son, William, Lord of Nithsdale, married a daughter of King Robert II the lands were gifted to them.

[6] Their daughter Egidia, married Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and Lord of Rosslyn, and the estate passed to that couple in 1407.

[7] In 1768 his daughter Jean Stirling (1719–1797), wife of James Erskine, Lord Alva, sold the estate to William Morehead (1737–1793) a founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

For a period in the late 19th century it was a boarding school,[10][11] but it later returned to use as a residence for the Forbes family.

These included Mr and Mrs Charles William Forbes (4th of Callendar),[12] the four Forbes daughters (Louise, Agnes, Margaret and Marion, aged 10 to 16) – after a dramatic rescue from the turret by ladder – and two maids who leaped across a 22-foot gap to an adjoining roof.