Archie, accompanied by Sir John Grahame, now made an inspection of the walls of his new hold.

It stood just where the counties of Linlithgow and Edinburgh join that of Lanark.

It was built on an island on a tributary of the Clyde.

The stream was but a small one, and the island had been artificially made, so that the stream formed a moat on either side of it, the castle occupying a knoll of ground which rose somewhat abruptly from the surrounding country.

The moat was but twelve feet wide, and Archie and Sir John decided that this should be widened to fifty feet and deepened to ten, and that a dam should be built just below the castle to keep back the stream and fill the moat.