Stichill is mentioned as a manor of Sir Thomas Randolph, later the Earl of Moray, when in 1308 it was considered forfeited to Edward I of England and granted to Adam Gordon.

One Home was killed in a battle against Henry Percy (Hotspur) at Verneuil in France in 1424 under 'auld alliance' of Scots with Frenchmen.

On that drizzling wet day in September 1513 it was doubtless true, as Walter Scott wrote, that The Border slogan rent the sky !

It is equally probable' his descendant Alec claimed at the annual Flodden commemoration 450 years later, ' that having fought the skirmish, Home interpreted his duty as advance guard to press on and secure for the Scottish army the ford at Coldstream which would guarantee its safety. '

In the time of Mary Queen of Scots, one of the Home castles that stood at Stichill, a few miles north west of the Hirsel, was 'destroyit ', and then rebuilt as a rampart against the English, thanks to a gift of 2,000 livres from King of France.

Strangely enough, later earl, the sixth, violently opposed the Act of Union of England and Scotland, and his son was suspected of Jacobitism.

A contemporary described him as ' a tall slovenly man endowed with very good parts; is a firm countryman but never would acknowledge King William'.

He fought against Bonnie Prince Charlie in the '45, and was rewarded by King George II with the Governorship of Gibraltar and the rank of Lieutenant-General.