Cunningham’s Castle
Cunningham’s Castle # CRA S NO610069 1 10m
Sir Neels Tower 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Sir Neels-tour 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Cunningham’s Castle 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
pn Cunningham + SSE castle
The Cunningham family held Barns CRA (q.v.) from 1376, when Nigel of Cunningham (Nigellus de Conyngham) AYR received a charter of the lands of Barns on the resignation of Patrick of Polworth (Patricius de Polworthe), knight (RMS i no. 593). This Nigel is presumably the Neel of the seventeenth-century maps, since Nigellus is a common way of Latinising the G name Nìall (Neil). There is no trace of the tower now, but an area of shore immediately to the south of the castle site is still known as Castle Haven, which appears in the 1790s as Castle Hyne (Sc hyne ‘haven’) (OSA, 171).
This may be the place shown as E. Barnes in 1654 by Blaeu (Pont) East Fife. See East Barns CRA below.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3