Amisfield, a village and a mansion in Tinwald parish,Dumfriesshire. The village stands on a head-stream of Lochar Water, near the Dumfries and Lockerbie branch of the Caledonian, under the Tinwald Hills, 4 miles NNE of Dumfries. It has a station on the railway, and a post office under Dumfries. The mansion, standing ½ mile NNW of the village, is partly a modern edifice, partly an old baronial fortalice, one of the most interesting of its kind. It belonged from the 12th century to the Anglo-Norman family of Charteris, of whom Sir Thomas became Lord High Chancellor of Scotland in 1280: Sir John was Warden of the West Marches under James V., and by that king (as ' Gudeman of Ballangeich ') was punished for wrong-doing to a widow: and another Sir John was an active Royalist during the Great Rebellion, as also was his brother Captain Alex. Charteris, beheaded at Edinburgh in 1650. An oak door, curiously carved with ' Samson and the lion, ' and dated 1600, has found its way from Amisfield Castle to the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. Remains of a little fort, which may have been Roman, are on the Amisfield estate, near the line of a Roman road.
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