Dunglass Castle
In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described
Dunglass like this:
Dunglass, a mansion in Oldhamstocks
parish, E Haddingtonshire, standing in the midst of a fine park, ¾
mile inland, and 1½ mile NW of Cockburnspath.
An elegant edifice, surmounted by a tower, it occupies the site
of a strong castle of the Lords Home, which, passing, on their
forfeiture in 1516, to the Douglases, was
besieged and destroyed by the English under the Earl of
Northumberland in the winter of 1532, and again under the
Protector Somerset in 1547(1). It was rebuilt in greater extent and
grandeur than before, and gave accommodation in 1603 to James
VI. and all his retinue when on his journey to London; but,
being held in 1640( ) by a party of Covenanters under the Earl of Haddington, whom Leslie had left behind to watch the garrison of
Berwick, it was blown up with gunpowder on 30 August. An English
page, according to Scotstarvet, vexed by a taunt against his
countrymen, thrust a red-hot iron into a powder barrel, and
himself was killed, with the Earl and many others.
Dunglass is the seat now of Sir Basil Francis Hall, seventh
Bart. since 1687 (b. 1828; suc. 1876), who holds 887 acres in
the shire, valued at £2158 per annum. Dunglass was the
birthplace of his grandfather, Sir James Hall (1761-1832), the
distinguished geologist and chemist.
A wooded, deep ravine called Dunglass Dean, and traversed by
Berwick or Dunglass Burn, extends 4½ miles north-north-eastward
to the sea, along the mutual border of Haddington and Berwick
shires. It is spanned by two bridges not far from each other on
old and new lines of road, and by an intermediate magnificent
railway viaduct, whose middle arch is 135 feet in span, and
rises 125 feet from the bed of the stream to the top of the
parapet. With five other arches toward the ravine's crests, this
viaduct is, in itself, an object of great architectural beauty;
and combines with the adjacent bridges and with the ravine's
features of rock and wood and water to form an exquisitely
striking scene.—Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863.
No trace of Dunglass Castle remains. A mansion built c. 1800 has
been completely demolished and a modern (1961) house, still
known as 'Dunglass', has been erected on the site.
Dunglass is a beautiful Country Estate in East Lothian. It is an
area of outstanding natural beauty combining graceful manicured
parkland with areas of rugged wilderness. These stunning
landscapes have remained a consistent backdrop throughout time
overlooking a place rich in history.
Dunglass is still
very much a family estate and it is currently owned by the Usher
family. Their ancestor Francis James Usher bought the Estate
from Sir John Richard Hall, 9th Bart in 1919. The Hall family
occupied Dunglass for 232 years from 1687. Other proprietors
were also the Home (or Hume) family 1300s - 1516 whose many
dignitaries include David Home (philosopher) and Sir Alexander
Home (Lord of Parliament in 1473).
Some inevitable
changes and even the odd barrel of gunpowder, have meant that
impressive structures such as castles and later Dunglass Mansion
House built between 1807 and 1813 no longer exist, nevertheless
there still stands many impressive historic and listed buildings
which include the enchanting 'secret' walled garden built in the
1800s, rich with flora and fauna, herbaceous borders, tropical
fruits, trimmed hedges and lawns. Other structures mostly built
between 1761 and 1832 have also remained throughout time. The
jewel in the crown today however is Dunglass Collegiate church
built in the early 1400s.
Dunglass Collegiate Church was given collegiate status in
1443 by its original founder's son Sir Alexander Home. It is a
beautiful cruciform building of Gothic design and remains one of
the finest examples of its type and period in Scotland.
Today Dunglass remains a productive agricultural estate
along with residential property lets. The Usher family are fully
committed to the ongoing balance and restoration of rich and
varied habitats, forests, parkland and properties whilst
exploring sensitive, exciting and diverse ideas now and in the
future.
Robert Burns paid a fine tribute to summarise
Dunglass in 1787 when he visited Sir James Hall saying; "Dunglass
the most romantic sweet place I ever saw"
His words live on..
Notes:
1. September 1547.
The army havhig been collected at Newcastle, the protector rode
thither from London, and was met six miles from the town on
Saturday, the 21th of August, by Warwick, the lord-lieutenant,
and Sadler, the master-treasurer, who had already been there for
three or four days, and by "all the nobles, knights, and
captains of the army on horseback attending upon them." The next
day a muster of the whole force was held in the fields to the
north-east of the town; and on Monday, the 29th, they set
forward for the borders. Reaching Berwick on Friday, the 2nd of
September, they found there Lord Clinton with the fleet, which
immediately put to sea, while the army rested a day, and then,
on the Sunday, set forward on its march close along the shore.
Having made their way, on the 5th, across the deep glen or
valley of the Peaths, or the Pease (as it is commonly
pronounced), at Cockburnspath,—now spanned by a bridge from
which the traveller looks down upon the stream flowing through
the chasm a hundred and fifty feet below,—the invaders began the
work of war by sitting down before Dunglass Castle, a hold
belonging to Sir George Douglas, and summoning
it to surrender. The captain, Matthew Hume, the son of a brother
of Lord Hume, made no vain show of resistance, but soon came
forth, "and brought with him," says our journalist, "his band to
my lord's grace, which was of twenty-one sober (poor) soldiers,
all so apparelled and appointed that, so God help me (I will say
it for no praise), I never Baw such a bunch of beggars come out
of one house together in my life." Six of the most decent of
these scarecrows were detained; the rest were allowed " to gea
their gate," —that is, to go their way,—with an admonition that
they would be hanged tha next time they were caught. Patten
chanced to be one of the party that went to rifle the castle.
"The spoil," he says, "was not rich, sure; but of white bread,
oaten cakes, and Scottish ale, whereof was indifferent good
store, and soon bestowed among my lord's soldiers accordingly.
As for swords, bucklers, pikes, pots, pans, yarn, linen, hemp,
and heaps of such baggage beside, were scant stoopt for, and
very liberally let alone; but yet sure it would have rued any
good housewife's heart to have beholden the great unmerciful
murder that our men made of the brood geese and good laying hens
that were slain there that day, which the wives of the town had
penned up in holes in the stables and cellars of the castle ere
we came." The castle was afterwards blown up with gunpowder, as
were also Thornton and Anderwick, two other peels or strongholds
belonging to Lord Hume, on the following day.
2. 30 August 1640. In the
autumn of the year 1640, Lady Boyd met with a painful trial in
the death of three of her brothers, and others of her relatives,
in very distressing circumstances. Thomas, second earlof
Haddington, and Robert Hamilton of West Binning, in the county
of Linlithgow, her brothers by her father's second wife, Patrick
Hamihon, her natural brother, Sir John Hamilton of Redhouse, her
cousin-german, and Sir Alexander Erskine, fourth son of the
seventh earl of Mar, brother-in-law to her brother Thomas, all
perished at Dunglass castle (in the county of Haddington) when
it was blown up on the 30th of August that year. They had
attached themselves to the covenanters ; and when General Leslie
marched into England that same year against Charles L, they were
left behind by the Scottish parliament, in order to resist the
English incursions : and Thomas, second earl of Haddington, who
had the command of the party thus left, fixed his quarters at
Dunglass castle. While his lordship, about mid-day, on the 30th
of August, was standing in a court of the castle, surrounded by
his friends now named, and several other gentlemen, to whom he
was reading a letter he had just received from General Leslie, a
magazine of gunpowder contained in a vault in the castle blew up
; and one of the side walls instantly over-whelmed him and all
his companions, with the exception of four, who were thrown by
the force of the explosion to a considerable distance. The
earl's body was found among the rubbish, and buried at Tyninghame.
Besides this nobleman, three or four score of gentlemen lost
their lives. It was reported that the magazine was designedly
blown up by the earl's page, Edward Paris, an English boy, who
was so enraged, on account of his master having jestingly told
him that his countrymen were a pack of cowards, to suffer
themselves to be beaten and to run away at Newburn, that he took
a red-hot iron and thrust it into one of the powder-barrels,
perishing himself with the rest.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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