Murder-hole

Immediately inside the doorway is a small lobby which is defended by a cross loop which would have been manned from inside the main chamber and defended by a murder-hole over.

The murder-hole above the outer end of the passage survives, but only the descending grooves mark the position of the outer portcullis within it, beneath the recess to receive it in the outer E. wall

This corridor is entered from the Castle by a tunnel cut through the rampart, its exit through the wall being guarded by a murder-hole above, and made more secure by a double right-angle bend and a narrow doorway.

Marcus caught up another large rock, but before hurling it he paused, squinting eagerly down his murder-hole.

The pits were of the kind which have become known as murder-holes, for the reason already explained that they were used by the barons, who had power of pit and gallows, to punish malefactors summarily.

Some of the murder-holes or pits, are said to be eighty feet deep, from which human bones have been brought forth, and their origin has been referred to the feudal grants, which were conferred on so many barons, of having and using " pit and gallows."

Drowning is a very old mode of punishment in Scotland; and in Galloway there were pits of great depth appropriated to that punishment, still called murder-holes, out of which human bones have occasionally been taken in great quantities.