[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

—
HARDYKNUTE.
The ballad of Hardyknute is supposed to refer to the well known
defeat of the Nonvegians at the battle of Largs in 1263. The
assumed castle of the hero—the house of " Fairly fair"—accords
perfectly with the description,
" Higli on a hill his castle stood
With ha's and tow'rs a height."
Fairlie Castle, still pretty entire, is situated on the coast side of the
palish of Largs, betwixt the small water of Kilbirnie on the north,
and that of Fairlie on the south. It stands on the brink of a deep
and romanticly wooded ravine,
about a quarter of a mile from the
sea, overhanging the stream of Fairlie. The castle, which, from its
style, seems upwards of 400 years
old, commands a splendid view of
the Frith of Clyde. The barony of Fairlie was possessed, until the
beginning of the last centmy, when it was acquired by David, Earl of
Glasgow, by a family of the name of Fairlie. Pont says, in his topography
of Cuninghame "
: Fairlie castele is a strong tovre, and very
ancient, beautified with orchardes and gardens. It belongs to Fairlie
de Eodem, cheiffe of ther name." Nisbet states that this family was
descended from Robert de Ross, a branch of the
Rosses of Tarbet,
who, in the Ragman Roll, are said to have been the proprietors of
Fairlie, from which they took their name. The first of them yet
traced was William de Fairlie, who, in 1335, is included in the list of
Scotchmen who received letters of pardon from Edward III., for all
the crimes they had committed in war with England.
The name was
written Farnlye in old writings. " Joheni Famlye de Eodem" is
mentioned in the testament of Thomas Boyd of Lin in 1547 ;
it was
also spelled "Fairnelie." It is so put down in "the testament of
Katharine Crawfurd, Lady fairnelie w*in the parochine of Lairgis,"
1601.* According to this spelling, the name is probably deiived
from the
Celtic
-fair, a height; or fairean, the rising or setting
of the sun. Fairlie Castle commands an excellent view of the setting
sun.
The Fairlies of that Ilk cannot thus be traced so far back as the
era of the battle of Largs—still it is possible that they may have been
in possession of it even then. At all events, it is quite probable that
a castle called Fairlie existed, where the present one now stands, as
* Com. Records of Glasgow.
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