Tantallon Castle

In 1350, this castle on the edge of Bass Rock was built by William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas , nephew of Sir James the Good . Around 1357, William married Margaret, sister of Thomas, Earl of Mara , who bore him a son, James . When Earl Mar died, William became the lover of his widow, who was also called Margaret and who inherited her husband and after his death became Countess of Angus and Mara. She also bore him a son, George.

In 1384, William died. He was succeeded by a son from his legal wife - James, 2nd Earl of Douglas . But four years later he died at the Battle of Otterben . Margaret, the former lover of the 1st Earl, demanded that the castle be transferred to her son. In 1389, she bequeathed to her son the county of Angus, who thus became George, 1st Earl of Angus . This split the powerful Douglas clan .

The head of the clan’s main branch was Archibald , the illegitimate son of Sir James the Good, whom the English dubbed Black Douglas because of the stern temper. The descendants of Archibald became known as the Black Douglas, and the Earls of Angus became the Red Douglas. In 1491, Archibald, the 5th Earl of Angus , entered into an alliance with the King of England Henry VII , intending to help the British capture the Scottish King James IV . But the plot was uncovered, and Archibald sat down in Tantallon and began to prepare for a siege.

In October, Jacob IV arrived at the castle walls. There are no records in the annals about how the siege ended, but it is known that later the king for some unknown reason forgave the traitor and even presented him with black velvet clothes for Christmas .

In 1528, Tantallon besieged King James V. The siege lasted 20 days and then the castle could not be taken, because the siege ended in disaster for Jacob V - his artillery could not break through the wall due to a lack of gunpowder and cores, and gunsmiths master Lord Bortwick was captured by Angus at a time when the king ordered folding batteries. In 1529, Jacob V made another attempt and it was successful - while Archibald, the 6th Earl of Angus , was away, the king bribed the guards and captured Tantallon. He immediately began to rebuild the castle, using a greenish stone in his works - so now you can distinguish old buildings from buildings from the time of Jacob V.

In 1651, after the siege of Cromwell, the castle was practically turned into ruins. In 1669, Tantallon was bought by Sir Hugh Dalrymple, but did not rebuild the castle to make it again habitable. Only at the end of the 19th century did his descendant, Sir Walter Hamilton Dalrymple, take measures to prevent the castle from completely falling apart. In 1924, Tantallon was transferred to the state.

• The official site of the castle (English)
• Castle article at Undiscoveredscotland.co.uk
• Castlescore article on Electricscotland.com
• Photos of the castle on Flickr.com

• List of castles in Scotland