historical Haverings - how castle street in montrose got its name

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Hey, folks. It's Craig Scott, Shagga Hunter back again out the day, and today I am outside the Jobcentre in Montrose because uh we have the tale of uh Montrose Castle to tell.

[00:00:11]Uh back in the day, uh I think we're going back to the 11th century, 1144 when the castle was built.

[00:00:20]Uh and and it lasted for over 150 years before it was destroyed by William Wallace.

[00:00:27]Yes, you heard that correct. William Wallace sacked Montrose uh in 12 97.

[00:00:34]Uh and the reason he sacked Montrose uh castle was because Edward Longshanks had installed his men in this castle in 1296.

[00:00:45]So, this all took place during the Wars of Scottish Independence, uh which ended in uh 1307 with the Battle of uh Bannockburn, which is all tales we'll get to, no doubt, in the future cuz uh we will. But uh while I'm here, I'll show you another few things about this area cuz uh you the corner of it used to be under this bit here because I've uh seen the old archaeological dig uh records because uh my folks used to own this building here, uh which is a It's the old Customs and Excise House. So, we've also got the tales of Montrose tunnels and things like this because uh I can't remember whether it was Bonnie Prince Charlie or his father who uh was smuggled into Montrose via that building.

[00:01:40]We have a Mason's Lodge up here.

[00:01:44]And then uh while I'm at it, I'll give you a quick look at the High Street cuz we'll get on to the tunnels of Montrose and stuff like that maybe another day.

[00:01:52]We've got the Market of Montrose here, which was where the Covenanters We've got Steeple, which is about 180 ft tall and was built in 1830.

[00:02:05]Uh you got a super wide High Street, which is another tale I'll go into later.

[00:02:10]And then uh we got the old library.

[00:02:13]And then I'll just take you and show you Castle Street because the castle used to corner was down there and it went for about three or four blocks, but it was behind all these uh buildings.

[00:02:29]And uh as I said, uh William Wallace totally destroyed it in uh 1297.

[00:02:35]And after that, uh they built a fort on where the infirmary is, which is another tale I will uh tell later. But this is the north end of Castle Street here and uh that's how Castle Street got its name.

[00:02:53]If you're not following me, you should be and uh smash all the buttons and I'll catch up with you guys later.