Luffness Castle
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Luffness
Castle reconstruction by
Andrew Spratt
Luffness Castle, sometimes known as Luffness House or Aberlady
Castle, is a castle of 13th-century origin in Luffness, not far from
Aberlady, in East Lothian, Scotland. The castle is historically part
of the entail of the Earls of Hopetoun.
There is evidence of a permanent Viking camp at this site.
It is believed that the original castle was a significant fortress,
founded by the Gospatrick Earls of Dunbar and March. Its position
allowed it to protect landings in Aberlady Bay, and Haddington,
which lies a few miles inland. On the death of the crusading eighth
earl, the property was presented to the church, so that a Carmelite
friary was founded in the ground in 1293.
The French built a fort around the castle in 1549 as defence against
the English, and it was successful in impeding them for a time in
the War of the Rough Wooing. Mary of Guise ordered its destruction
in 1552 as part of the peace arrangements, at the insistence of the
Earl of Hertford.
After the Reformation Sir Patrick Hepburn of Waughton acquired the
property, and the Hepburn Earls of Bothwell gained possession in due
time. Mary, Queen of Scots, visited Luffness in the company of her
third husband, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell.
It was purchased for £8,350 in 1739 by the 1st Earl of Hopetoun,
whose family owns it still.
The house, which lies in a wooded estate not far from Aberlady Bay,
is now a T-plan building, incorporating the 16th-century tower
house. It was added to and altered in the Victorian and Edwardian
periods. A moat, earthworks, a stair-tower, gun-loops, and a turret
remain from earlier periods.
The walled fruit garden was built by Prisoners of War of the
Napoleonic Wars.
A Carmelite friary [NT 471801] was built nearby in 1293, some
fragments of which survive, including the stone effigy and burial
slab of a man in armour, in an overgrown woodland setting.
This
knight’s tomb, a well-worn effigy of a medieval nobleman lying under
a pointed arch. The identity of the subject is long forgotten,
although local tradition claims that it is one Bickerton, a standard
bearer to Sir William Douglas(1) who turned traitor
on his master at the Battle of
Otterburn in 1388 and later met a grisly end. Others say it is
Henry de Pinkey, a local landowner who supported Robert the Bruce
during the famous Wars of Independence in the early 14th Century.
Whoever he was, the wide cracks in the tomb reveal that his mortal
remains are now long-gone. Photo and story:
mysearchformagic.com
See: Dunbars Vs Douglas
Notes:
1. It was James, 2nd Earl of Douglas who
fought and died at Otterburn. But let's not spoil a good story.
Any contributions to this item will be
gratefully accepted
Errors and Omissions
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