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The site at Caerlaverock has been in use since the start of the 13th century, with the original castle replaced by the current triangular one in 1277. The seat of the powerful Maxwell family, the castle was besieged and taken by Edward I in 1300. Caerlaverock was returned to the Maxwells but, in view of several sieges during the war of Scottish independence, Robert the Bruce ordered the castle’s partial demolition to prevent it from falling into English hands. Bruce realised that the English army would hold a position of great strength if they held Caerlaverock.
The early 14th century saw extensive rebuilding of the castle in the newly independent Scotland with generous compensation from King Robert the Bruce. Further construction took place but, by the mid-16th century, when the Maxwells took up the cause of Mary Queen of Scots, Caerlaverock was again besieged and seriously damaged by an English Protestant army in 1570.
The tower in the foreground is known as Murdoch's tower. It held a pit-prison, a dark cell with its only access through a trapdoor in the ceiling. Murdoch, Duke of Albany, was the cell’s most prestigious prisoner, held here before his execution at Stirling in 1425 as an act of vengeance by James I.