A journey around Scotland: from North Berwick to Tantallon Castle…

A View of Tantallon Castle – circa 1816 – Alexander Nasmyth – Wikimedia

Tantallon screams defense. From a distance, its walls soar out of the rocky headland like a monster fortification. A single line of huge wall was all that was necessary to defend this promontory from the land. Sea cliffs fall away precipitously from all sides except the front. Behind the castle, picturesque Bass Rock juts out of the Firth of Forth.

(In Search of Ancient Scotland – A Guide for the Independent Traveler – Gerald M. Ruzicki – Dorothy A. Ruzicki – AspenGrove Publishing 2000)

Friday 4 September – 2nd part: Our journey around Scotland goes on, following the A 198 in East Lothian. In this episode #5, part 2,  we stop at North Berwick and discover Tantallon Castle.

North Berwick Scottish flags © 2007 Scotiana

So nice is the weather that we would have liked to stay all day long in the magnificent Arts & Crafts and Victorian Gardens at Dirleton Castle but as we want to visit Tantallon Castle and John Muir’s native place in Dunbar we’d better hurry up.

Moreover we begin to be hungry. So off we go to North Berwick. There, we’ll try to find a good place to eat a ‘wee’ something before visiting the impressive fortress of Tantallon looking out over the breathtaking island of Bass Rock.

Bass Rock off North Berwick East Lothian – A view from Tantallon Castle © 2012 Scotiana

Last time, when we came to North Berwick, we arrived too late to visit Tantallon castle and I still remember how much disappointed we were not only to miss this famous historical place but also its spectacular viewpoint over Bass Rock.

Bass Rock panel Tantallon Castle © 2012 Scotiana

‘Often described as a sentinel guarding the Firth of Forth the Bass Rock or “auld crag” has served as a retreat, a fortress and a beacon (…)

A lighthouse was built on the rock in the 19th century and remains an important beacon for shipping on the Forth.

Today the island is uninhabited by people but remains the oldest known gannetry in the world. The birds are studied and protected now, but in the past they were the staple diet of the people on the Rock and at Tantallon. You can learn more about them at the Scottish Seabirds Centre at North Berwick.’

Picturesque old houses in a quiet street of North Berwick © 2007 Scotiana

North Berwick is a nice and very pleasant seaside resort with picturesque old houses and colourful shops. Our first idea was to find a table at the Buttercup Cafe but it was full. We finally push the door of the Deli & Cafe Bunney’s and don’t regret our choice for, after a cheerful welcome, we are served delicious food in a very cosy atmosphere.

North Berwick seaside front houses with Bass Rock in the distance © 2007 Scotiana

North Berwick is one of our favourite places in East Lothian and we’ll certainly come back again. A couple of hours is far from enough time to visit the area and enjoy it.  Robert Louis Stevenson, as a child, used to spend his holidays there and the influence of the place on his writings is not negligible. His little autobiographical book, The Lantern Bearers is one of my favourites. I’ve read it some time ago, in French (Les Porteurs de lanternes – Traduction de Marie Picard – Edition Sillage 2009).

North Berwick beach with Law Hill in the background – Source Wikimedia

These boys congregated every autumn about a certain easterly fisher-village, where they tasted in a high degree the glory of existence. The place was created seemingly on purpose for the diversion of young gentlemen. A street or two of houses, mostly red and many of them tiled; a number of fine trees clustered about the manse and the kirkyard, and turning the chief street into a shady alley; many little gardens more than usually bright with flowers; nets a-drying, and fisher-wives scolding in the backward parts; a smell of fish, a genial smell of seaweed; whiffs of blowing sand at the street-corners; shops with golf-balls and bottled lollipops; another shop with penny pickwicks (that remarkable cigar) and the London Journal, dear to me for its startling pictures, and a few novels, dear for their suggestive names: such, as well as memory serves me, were the ingredients of the town. These, you are to conceive posted on a spit between two sandy bays, and sparsely flanked with villas—enough for the boys to lodge in with their subsidiary parents, not enough (not yet enough) to cocknify the scene: a haven in the rocks in front: in front of that, a file of grey islets: to the left, endless links and sand wreaths, a wilderness of hiding-holes, alive with popping rabbits and soaring gulls: to the right, a range of seaward crags, one rugged brow beyond another; the ruins of a mighty and ancient fortress on the brink of one; coves between—now charmed into sunshine quiet, now whistling with wind and clamorous1 with bursting surges; the dens and sheltered hollows redolent of thyme and southernwood, the air at the cliff’s edge brisk and clean and pungent of the sea—in front of all, the Bass Rock, tilted seaward like a doubtful bather, the surf ringing it with white, the solan-geese hanging round its summit like a great and glittering smoke. This choice piece of seaboard was sacred, besides, to the wrecker; and the Bass, in the eye of fancy, still flew the colours of King James; and in the ear of fancy the arches of Tantallon still rang with horse-shoe iron, and echoed to the commands of Bell-the-Cat. (Robert Louis Stevenson – The Lantern Bearers – first published in Scribner’s Magazine in 1888 and then in Across the Plains in 1892))

After enjoying our light meal at the Deli & Cafe Bunney’s, we head for the impressive ruined fortress of Tantallon Castle, eager to see the breathtaking views on Bass Rock.

We always wait with much anticipation for the visit of a new castle but as I’ve already mentioned we’re no experts in the matter and we need tools to help us before and after such visit. In Scotland most places of interest have inside and outside panels, very well documented and illustrated. You can also get a brochure, free or not and of course search Internet.  I’m a daily user of Wikipedia, this fantastic online encyclopaedia, an immense source of knowledge, open, lively, evolutive.  Each time I’m looking for information about one or other subject, the first thing I do, even before browsing the crowded shelves of my library, is to search Wikipedia. This time, while trying to  complete my knowledge of Tantallon Castle, I was very happy to discover a project which immediately appealed to me, the ‘Scottish Castles Project’.

Tantallon Castle Plan by Jonathan Oldenbuck – Wikipedia

I discovered this WikiProject while looking for information about Jonathan Oldenbuck, the author of the above Tantallon Castle plan. That must be the work of an expert, I said to myself, and here’s what I’ve found on Wikipedia:

If this funny and puzzling table has triggered your curiosity you’ll find answers on this other page of Wikipedia.

logo WikiProject Scottish Castles

Welcome to WikiProject Scottish Castles on the English Wikipedia! We are a group dedicated to improving Wikipedia’s coverage of Scotland’s numerous castles.

The focus of this WikiProject is relatively narrow: it aims to improve and expand Wikipedia’s coverage of castles in Scotland, with the ultimate goal of giving a full and detailed description of every notable castle in Scotland, accompanied with (where possible):

Location map
Photographs (external and internal)
Floor plans
History
Description

The definition of ‘castle’ is a broad one, but the main focus of this project is on defensive structures of the 12th to 17th centuries, together with later “revival” castles.

Now, we’ll know where to look for when investigating about a Scottish castle.

Each castle has its own history to tell and a number of secrets to share with people who love it. We like to be given clues to understand the language of the old stones 😉

Reconstruction of Tantallon castle with Douglas horsemen – Andrew Spratt

I won’t forget Andrew Spratt either.  To him we owe wonderful reconstruction images of the Scottish castles. I’ve introduced him in my last post devoted to Dirleton Castle

Tantallon Castle curtain wall and dovecot © 2012 Scotiana

Tantallon was built in the mid 14th century by William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas. It was passed to his illegitimate son, George Douglas, later created Earl of Angus, and despite several sieges, it remained the property of his descendants for much of its history. It was besieged by King James IV in 1491, and again by his successor James V in 1528, when extensive damage was done.

Tantallon saw action in the First Bishops’ War in 1639, and again during Oliver Cromwell’s invasion of Scotland in 1651, when it was once more severely damaged. It was sold by the Marquis of Douglas in 1699 to Hew Dalrymple, Lord North Berwick and the ruin is today in the care of Historic Scotland.

Tantallon Castle © 2012 Scotiana

We didn’t realize that the castle was just a single huge wall until we walked through the central  tower and into the close, the open grassy area leading to the cliffs. This is why the wall is called a curtain wall, as though a curtain (of stone) bisects the neck of the promontory.

(In Search of Ancient Scotland – A Guide for the Independent Traveler – Gerald M. Ruzicki – Dorothy A. Ruzicki – AspenGrove Publishing 2000)

Tantallon Castle illustrated panel © 2012 Scotiana

‘Tantallon Castle, built about AD 1350, was the fortress-residence for over three hundred years of one of the most powerful families in Scotland, the Douglas earls of Angus (the ‘Red Douglases’).’

Tantallon Castle information panel © 2012 Scotiana

On the above panel we can see the coat of arms of William, first earl of Douglas, the builder of the castle and the Family Tree of the ‘Red’ Douglas, earls of Angus.

(Clan Douglas – The coat of arms of William, first earl of Douglas – Source Wikipedia)

Blazon: Argent a heart Gules on a chief Azure three mullets of the first.

The panel reads: ‘The Douglasses, modest landowners before the Wars of Independence with England in the fourteenth century, emerged as a significant force thereafter through their close association with Robert the Bruce. Tantallon was built to demonstrate to all who passed their new-found wealth and prestige. ‘

Tantallon Castle engraving William Miller after Alexander Nasmyth Waverley Novels

I said, Tantallon’s dizzy steep
Hung o’er the margin of the deep.
Many a rude tower and rampart there
Repelled the insult of the air,
Which, when the tempest vexed the sky,
Half breeze, half spray, came whistling by.
Above the rest, a turret square
Did o’er its Gothic entrance bear,
Of sculpture rude, a stony shield;
The Bloody Heart was in the Field,
And in the chief three mullets stood,
The cognizance of Douglas blood.
The turret held a narrow stair,
Which, mounted, gave you access where
A parapet’s embattled row
Did seaward round the castle go.
Sometimes in dizzy steps descending,
Sometimes in narrow circuit bending,
Sometimes in platform broad extending,
Its varying circle did combine
Bulwark, and bartisan, and line,
And bastion, tower, and vantage-coign:
Above the booming ocean leant
The far-projecting battlement;
The billows burst, in ceaseless flow,
Upon the precipice below.
Where’er Tantallon faced the land,
Gate-works and walls were strongly manned;
No need upon the sea-girt side;
The steepy rock and frantic tide
Approach of human step denied;
And thus these lines and ramparts rude
Were left in deepest solitude.

From ‘Marmion‘

(Sir Walter Scott )

Who, better than the ‘Magician of the North’ could have described this impressive castle ‘above the booming ocean leant’ and forever ‘left in deepest solitude’ in spite of its many visitors…

By the way did you hear about this incredible story about the ghost of Tantallon Castle?

The Telegraph and Wikipedia mentions the story :

“In March 2009, psychology professor Richard Wiseman released a photograph taken at Tantallon, which appeared to show a figure standing behind railings in a wall opening. The image, taken in May 2008 and sent to Wiseman as part of a research project, was described in The Times as showing a “courtly figure dressed in a ruff”. Wiseman stated that no costumed guides were present at Tantallon, and that three photographic experts have confirmed that the image had not been manipulated. A second photo, taken 30 years earlier, and showing a different figure in a similar location, was printed in The Scotsman a few days later.”

Eerie atmosphere at Tantallon Castle © 2012 Scotiana

Eerie atmosphere, isn’t it! I  woudn’t settle for the night in the area…

Bonne lecture!

And don’t forget, rendez-vous à Dunbar…

Mairiuna