Old
Cawdor is half a mile north from the present seat. There the
Thanes of Cawdor had a house, on a small moat, with a dry
ditch, and a drawbridge, the vestiges whereof were lately
to be seen; but by a royal license, dated 6th of August 1454,
they built the tower of
Cawdor, which now stands. It is built upon a rock of freestone,
washed by a brook to the west, and on the other sides having
a dry ditch with a draw-bridge. The tower stands between two
courts of building. Tradition says that the Thane was directed,
in a dream, to build the tower round a hawthorn tree, on the
bank of the
brook.
Be
this as it will, there is in the vault of the tower the trunk
of a hawthorn tree, firm and sound, growing
out of the rock, and reaching to the top of the vault. Strangers
are brought to stand round it, each one to take a chip of
it, and drink to the hawthorn tree i.e., “Prosperity
to the house of Cawdor.”
