Tantallon Castle

Tantallon was the last truly great castle built in Scotland. William Douglas, a nobleman, built the mighty fortress in the mid-1300s, at the height of his power.

In 1354, William was given the estates of his father, Sir Archibald Douglas, and his uncle, the ‘Good Sir James Douglas’, who was a close friend of Robert the Bruce. This land included the barony of North Berwick.

William was made Earl of Douglas in 1358 – by which time construction may have already begun at Tantallon

The house of Douglas split in the 1380s, becoming the 'Black' Douglases and the 'Red' Douglases. Tantallon Castle went with the Reds, who owned the castle for the next 300 years and often clashed with the Crown.

The castle was besieged by James IV in 1491; James V in 1528 and Oliver Cromwell in 1651. Cromwell’s army caused such destruction that the medieval fortress was abandoned after this last attack.

Like the mighty defensive stone castles of the 1200s, Tantallon had an enormously thick and high stone curtain wall enclosing a large courtyard along with tall stone towers to provide living quarters for the nobles.

Tantallon differs from most comparable castles only because of its setting by the sea. The curtain wall once enclosed the entire site – its seaward side has since fallen down – but the castle needed formidable defences on just its landward side.

The castle was built before the age of gunpowder artillery.

In William’s day, its high, thick walls defended against trebuchets (stone-throwing machines), battering rams and bows and arrows.

These threats help explain the almost complete lack of openings in the curtain wall, the concentration of defence on the battlements at the wall top, and the wide, deep ditch in front of the wall.

To defend Tantallon against artillery, later owners filled in wall chambers to help withstand cannon shot and added gun holes> They also built extra defenses outside – including a gun tower by the outer gate, and a ravelin (earthen gun emplacement).

In the end, it wasn’t enough. In 1651, Cromwell’s heavy guns ripped out the guts of the end towers.

Historic Scotland excavated several areas of the site in 2013 and 2014 with the help of volunteers.

This work located:

• the walls of some early buildings in the outer ward

• what we think may be the line of the original entry across the outer close to the castle

• evidence of some hastily erected ravelins