The Armstrong name was common over the whole of Northumbria and the Scottish Borders. The Armstrongs became a powerful and warlike clan in Liddesdale and the Debatable Lands. Historian George Fraser Black lists Adam Armstrong in 1235 as being pardoned for causing the death of another man. Black also records Gilbert Armstrong, steward of the household of David II of Scotland, as ambassador to England in 1363.
In around 1425 John Armstrong, brother of Armstrong of Mangerton in Liddesdale built a strong tower. The Armstrongs were able to raise three thousand horsemen and were said to be at one point in control of the debatable lands. In 1528, Lord Dacre, who was the English Warden of the Marches, attacked the Armstrongs' tower but the Armstrongs retaliated and burned Netherby. The power of the Armstrongs was seen by James V of Scotland as a threat to his own authority. According to tradition, James tricked John Armstrong of Gilnockie to a meeting at Hawick where the king hanged the Armstrong laird without further ado. King James continued his treatment of the Armstrongs when they failed to support him in 1542 at the Battle of Solway Moss. In 1603 the Union of the Crowns brought an official end to the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the Borders. In 1610 the last of the Armstrong lairds was hanged in Edinburgh for leading a raid on Penrith, England. This was followed by a ruthless campaign by the Crown to pacify the Borders. As a result, families were scattered with many of them seeking new homes in Ulster, particularly in County Fermanagh. Armstrong is now amongst the fifty most common names in Ulster. There has been no trace of the Armstrong chiefs since the clan was dispersed in the 17th century.
Modern clan history
Amongst the many distinguished Armstrongs are Sir Alexander Armstrong who was an Arctic explorer, and also Neil Armstrong who was the first man to walk upon the Moon, taking with him a piece of the Clan Armstrong tartan. The Armstrong Baronets are descendants of Gilnockie. Comedian Alexander Armstrong is a descendant. Although there has been no trace of the Armstrong chiefs since the clan was dispersed in the 17th century, there is a powerful and active clan association and the Clan Armstrong Trust was established in 1978.
Castles
Castles owned by the Clan Armstrong have included amongst many others:
Gilnockie Tower, also known as Hollows Tower, a couple of miles north of Canonbie in Dumfriesshire. It was apparently built in 1518 but there was probably an earlier stronghold on the site. It now houses a Clan Armstrong Centre.
Mangerton Tower, one mile south of Newcastleton, which is near to the English border. Nearby is the Minholm Cross, which was erected in about 1320 to commemorate the murder of Alexander Armstrong in Hermitage Castle.
It is unknown if any of the early Armstrongs spoke Gaelic, but Gaelic-drived place names such as Auchenrivock can be found in the Esk River valley, and the language persisted in Galloway, Carrick and the Western Borders well into the seventeenth century, so it is possible. The name of the Armstrong stronghold itself, Gilnockie, is from the Scottish GaelicGeal Cnocan meaning 'Little White Hill'. The Armstrong name is sometimes rendered in Gaelic as follows:
MacGhillielàidir
Clann 'icGhillelàidir
These Gaelic names appear frequently in modern clan literature, but they are neologistic and are rarely used by Gaelic speakers. However, Armstrong has been historically associated with the Ulster Gaelic name, Mac Tréan-Labhraidh, a branch of the Ó Labhradha family. Tréan-Labhradh means strong-speaking but it is thought that the name was misunderstood as meaning strong-arm, and Armstrong was adopted as a convenient Anglicization. Mac Tréan-Labhraidh would translate as Mac Treun-Labhraidh in Scottish Gaelic. Other common associated names include variations on Traynor, Treanor, Trainor, McCreanor, MacCrainor; which all derive from the Irish Gaelic name, Mac Threinfhir, meaning son of the strong man. After the Plantation of Ulster many Armstrongs adopted the Traynor surname. Among the best-known Gaelic-speaking Armstrongs was Dr Robert Armstrong of Perthshire, who compiled an authoritative early Gaelic-English dictionary, published in 1825.
