Tantallon Castle

History

Tantallon Castle was probably built by William, 1st Earl of Douglas, in the 1350s. His father, Sir Archibald Douglas, was killed at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, and William became the ward of his godfather, another William Douglas, the notorious "Knight of Liddesdale". William spent his youth in France and returned to Scotland in 1347, and he became the undisputed head of the house of Douglas.

In 1354, he was given the estates of his father and his uncle, the "Good Sir James Douglas", a close friend of Robert the Bruce, which included the barony of North Berwick. Building Tantallon Castle was a declaration of William's new-won wealth and status. In 1358, David II affirmed his position by creating him Earl of Douglas, only the third earldom established in Scotland since the 1100s.

William died in 1384, and his heir, James, 2nd Earl of Douglas, was killed four years later at the Battle of Otterburn. This prompted the Countess of Angus, Margaret, who was by then living at Tantallon Castle, to promote the claim of her son George, William's illegitimate son, to a share of the Douglas inheritance. Resisting efforts to remove her from the castle, Margaret won the support of several local lords. An agreement was reached that split the title and the Douglas barony of North Berwick that had passed to her in two. The senior title and most of the land passed to Archibald, known as Archibald the Black, hence the Black Douglases. George founded the junior line, the Red Douglases, and kept Tantallon Castle, becoming the 1st Earl of Angus.

George married Mary, the second daughter of Robert II. George was captured at the Battle of Humbleton in 1402 and died the following year. James, the 3rd Earl, used Tantallon Castle to pursue a vendetta against the rival faction of the family. His brother George, later the 4th Earl, and King James II's army routed the Black Douglas forces at Arkinholm in 1455, from which George was rewarded with the lordship of Douglas.

In 1460, James II was killed at the siege of Roxburgh Castle, which was then held by the English. One of his own cannons exploded nearby, killing him. George, the 4th Earl of Angus, had the privilege of placing the Scottish crown on James III's head at Kelso Abbey.

The 5th Earl, Archibald Douglas, or Bell the Cat, hanged some of James III's favorites from the bridge at Lauder. He also entered into a treasonous pact with Henry VII of England. This led to James IV besieging Tantallon Castle in October 1491, using crossbows and culverins (small cannons) in the attack. The king's ship was sent for to stop the castle being supplied by sea, and the king is even described losing at cards in the siege camp. The end of the siege is not recorded, but James forced the Earl to give up some of his lands in the Borders, and by Christmas, Archibald was back in favor, when the king gave him a black velvet gown with lambswool and buckram to the hem. Archibald died in 1513, and his two sons were subsequently killed at the Battle of Flodden.

Archibald's grandson, another Archibald, succeeded him as the 6th Earl of Angus. In 1514, he married Margaret Tudor, James IV's widow and Henry VIII's sister. After several questionable ventures, Archibald had to flee to Tantallon Castle for his protection.

In May 1528, James V escaped to Stirling Castle and joined his mother, Margaret Tudor, who was by then estranged from Angus. Angus withdrew to the safety of Tantallon and began improving the castle's defenses, and the wall and gun tower by the outer gate were possibly added at this time. Taking control of his kingdom, James charged Angus with treason and advanced on Tantallon with men and guns. His troops chanted "Ding Doon Tantalloun!" as they besieged the castle in October, but after 20 days of bombardment, one source claimed it "was never ane hair the worse". The king reluctantly withdrew because of a shortage of gunpowder and shot, though Angus's strengthened defenses probably also helped keep the heavy royal guns at bay. Archibald fled to England, and the castle passed to the king in 1529. After James V died in 1542, the Earl of Angus returned and took back possession of the castle.

By 1543, Scotland and England were again at war, and Archibald offered to surrender Tantallon Castle to the English. But Archibald changed sides when the English desecrated the Douglas Tombs at Melrose Abbey and led the Scots to victory over the English at the Battle of Ancrum Moor in 1545.

In 1547, Archibald Douglas fought at the Battle of Pinkie, where the Scots suffered a heavy defeat by the English. Archibald was admitted to the Order of St Michael, a French chivalric order, as a reward for his loyalty. In January 1556, his extraordinary and tempestuous life ended peacefully at Tantallon Castle.

In November 1566, Mary Queen of Scots visited Tantallon Castle during her return to Edinburgh during a trip to the eastern Borders. The 8th Earl of Angus, also known as Archibald, entered even more treacherous agreements with England and was exiled in 1581. He was allowed to return to Scotland in 1582 but soon aroused suspicion that he was once more in league with England and fortifying Tantallon Castle. In the end, it was reported that he "kept his house quietly" and had only repaired the shackles of an old brewhouse, without any other fortifications. He died at Smeaton, near Dalkeith, in 1588, aged 34, of a disease attributed to a spell cast by Agnes Sampson, who was later burnt as a witch on Castle Hill in Edinburgh.

In 1639, during the Bishops' Wars, Covenanters captured the castle. In late 1650, a party of 30 Covenanter "moss-troopers" garrisoned Tantallon and used it as a base to raid Berwick, and Cromwell ordered General Monck to remove them. So began Tantallon's third and final siege, in 1651. By now the garrison numbered 91 officers and men, including the moss-troopers, and was armed with 16 large guns. A contemporary recorded that Captain Alexander Seton "defendit the same gallantly", but after 12 days of bombardment, Monck's cannon opened a very large breach and filled the dry ditch with the wall, and the attackers entered by storm. Seton and the few men with him took refuge in the tower and resolved to sell their lives as dearly as they could if quarter was denied, but the enemy, seeing them stand so gallantly, offered quarter, which they accepted. The castle was never repaired or lived in again.

In 1699, the 2nd Marquess sold the castle and the Barony of North Berwick to Sir Hew Dalrymple, Lord President of the Court of Session. He made no attempt to make the castle habitable, and it continued to decay and was partly quarried for stone. Walter Scott described the ruin in his poem Marmion in 1808, and by the 1820s, it was little more than a picturesque ruin, described as "lonely among the gloomy firs". Sir Walter Hamilton Dalrymple carried out some repairs and landscaping prior to a visit by Queen Victoria in August 1878.

Tantallon Castle moved into state care in 1924 and is now under the care of Historic Environment Scotland. In 1944, captured German radar equipment was used near the castle to train RAF bomber crews, including 617 Squadron, for the deception that accompanied the D-Day landings.

Excavations in the 1900s were poorly recorded, which limited their usefulness. Historic Scotland excavated several areas of the site again in 2013 and 2014 with the help of volunteers. The work found the walls of some early buildings in the outer ward, what may be the line of the original entry across the outer close to the castle, and evidence of some hastily built ravelins (defensive outworks).

Castle Highlights

Although in a ruined state today, Tantallon Castle remains an impressive castle. It stands on a headland above the Firth of Forth, with sheer cliffs dropping to the sea on three sides. The fourth side is protected by a ditch about 20 feet wide. The castle's outer bailey still contains a Dovecot, built in the 17th century to house pigeons and doves for food. The pigeons were also used for communication over long distances.

The remains of the castle consist of a central tower and two corner towers connected by a 50-foot-high rampart wall. The Douglas Tower once stood seven stories high and was once circular. Today, it's mostly just the tower's inner wall that remains, because of the breach made in 1651.

The East Tower stands on the other end of the ramparts. It stood five stories high and originally had wooden floors, which gave way to stone vaulted ceilings. After the siege of 1528, it was reduced in height and fitted with gun ports.

The Gatehouse Tower contained four floors of residential rooms above a room that contained the portcullis mechanism. The tower also contained a drawbridge mechanism for raising and lowering the bridge over the ditch. Additionally, the gatehouse included a barbican in front of the tower, projecting into the ditch for enhanced protection.

You can spend up to half a day exploring Tantallon Castle. You can visit nearby Dirleton Castle or Hailes Castle for a full day of castle-seeing.

Tantallon Castle is also haunted.