Robert Loraine Monument

The Kirkhale Courtyard is a charming place to have a visit, with it's quaint shops and a lovely lake to have a wander around. However there is a monument to a chap called Robert Loraine which has a bit of grisly history.

Erected in 1728, the monument commemorates Robert Loraine, a figure who embodied the stark contradictions of 15th-century borderland existence. By day, he served as a warden of the Marches, entrusted with safeguarding English soil from Scottish raiders. By night, however, he donned the mantle of a Border Reiver, leading raids across the very border he swore to protect. This duality painted him as a bit of a controversial figure, crossing the line between protector and outlaw.

Loraine's met a brutal end in 1483 when returning home from a seemingly ordinary visit to the nearby church. He was ambushed and killed, his body was dismembered with the remains unceremoniously stuffed into his horse's saddlebags. The horse then trotted back home to be found and send a grisly message.

Accounts differ on the perpetrators - were they Scottish raiders seeking retribution for his past transgressions, or English rivals embroiled in a web of borderland feuds? Regardless, the act itself was one of chilling brutality.

Nearly two and a half centuries later, Sir William Loraine, a descendant of Robert, felt compelled to honor his forebear's memory. He commissioned the construction of the monument, a stark and simple obelisk devoid of elaborate flourishes. Its inscription, the only primary source of information about Robert's demise, states that he was "barbarously murdered".