The castle or fortified manor house lay on an area of slightly raised ground between the old Borland Smithy (East Borland Farm) and Borland Mill. No remains are visible on the site as the farmer removed the remaining walls previous to 1855, although some of the foundations although stones are still sometimes struck during ploughing and part of the old moat was visible in the 19th century situated close to the Borland Burn that was ideally located to fill it. Close to the castle site is the sand and gravel hillock known as the Castle Hill or Knowe. Several gravel pits have obscured what may have been a moat and this site could have been the site of a fort or a castle mound. In 1939 archaeological excavations revealed a wood lined shaft in the north-west side of the sandpit and a fragment of a medieval jug was discovered within, raising the suggestion that this site had been used as a kitchen-refuse dump for Borland Castle. The kitchen of East Borland Farm holds a stone located over the fireplace, presently hidden under interior decoration, that was recovered from the old castle and carved upon it are to the left the initials H. M. and on the right M. H. with the date 1677 in the centre. This relic is roughly three foot long and six inches in height. These initials are those of Hugh Montgomerie of Prestwickshaws and his bride Margaret Hamilton. Being fed by the
Black Loch it would have had a reliable water supply.
Borland Chapel The Lands of Borland are recorded as having possessed a pre-reformation chapel (NS594173) on the now demolished farm of Chapel House. In circa 1636-52 a Boirland church/chapel site is clearly shown on Robert Gordon's map. The 1857 OS map shows the site of the chapel. Borland Chapel is recorded by John Smith as lying near to the castle.
The Black Loch This loch lay within the Lands of Borland, held by the Hamilton family since circa late 14th to early 15th centuries. It is one of the very few bodies of water that have an outflow running in two different directions. Fanciful imagination has pictured a trout swimming up the River Ayr, passing into the
Lugar Water at Barskimming, entering the
Black Loch via the
Glaisnock Water and thence into the Black Loch. The second outflow from the loch would carry the trout into Creoch Loch, then into the Loch o' th' Lowes, the River Nith and finally into the
Solway Firth after a journey of around seventy miles.
Lairds Around the year 1400 a cadet branch of the Hamilton family came into possession of the lands of Borland. In 1551 George Hamilton and his son John were granted a 'Deed of Remission' by the Privy Council for "
..syding with the Earl of Lennox." at the
Battle of the Butts that had been fought in 1543 at the Gallowmuir close to
Glasgow. A George Hamilton of Borland, married to Janet, daughter of Keith of
Galston, was the second son of Sir David Hamilton of Cadzow. The family held the lands until in 1669 Hugh Hamilton of Borland left the lands to his grand-daughter Margaret, the heiress of this cadet branch of the family. Hugh Montgomerie of
Prestwickshaws, a descendant of the
Eglinton Montgomeries, married Margaret and sold his lands of Prestwickshaws to one Robert Wallace. In 1577 a John Hamilton was murdered by John Turnbull of Kelsis. In 1790 the lands were purchased by the
Earl of Dumfries; William Montgomerie succeeded his father Hugh and married Anne Hamilton of Letham and in 1711 was a Commissioner of Supply for Ayrshire. John was the son of this William and became a collector of taxes did not live at Borland due to the sale of the lands by his father. ==Cartographic evidence==