On a cliff battered by the North Sea, facing the crag of the Bass Rock, Tantallon raises a vast curtain of rose-pink stone: one of the last great curtain-wall castles in Scotland, and the seat of the Red Douglases, Earls of Angus. Here the Renaissance is not a matter of gardens but of power: that of a family strong enough to face its king.
The rampart of the Red Douglases
Built in the mid-fourteenth century, Tantallon protects its one vulnerable side — the rest defended by cliff and sea — with a colossal wall, over three metres thick and flanked by towers. It became the bastion of the Red Douglases, Earls of Angus, one of the most formidable houses in the realm. In the early sixteenth century, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, married Margaret Tudor — sister of Henry VIII and widow of King James IV, mother of the child-king James V. This marriage made Angus the king's stepfather and, for a time, the master of his person. But the child grew up hating the guardian who had held him in tutelage.
The royal siege of 1528
Come of age, James V turned against the Douglases and, in 1528, laid siege to Tantallon with his royal artillery. The fortress held: the siege failed, dazzling proof of the strength of the place. Angus eventually ceded the castle and went into exile in England — but Tantallon remained the symbol of a nobility able to defy the Crown. It was only in 1651, well after our period, that Cromwell's guns finally overcame the wall. To see: the great curtain of stone and the mid-tower, the gatehouse, the dovecote, and the sweeping view of the Bass Rock.
Did you know?
In Scotland, a thing held to be impossible was put thus: 'to ding doun Tantallon, to mak a brig to the Bass' — to knock down Tantallon, to build a bridge to the Bass Rock. Two images of the impossible in one phrase — and yet King James V did indeed come, in 1528, to try to bring Tantallon down. He failed: the proverb was right.
Notes
Tantallon Castle lies about 5 km east of North Berwick, East Lothian, on the coast; a site in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. Hours to check.
Quiz
- Which family held Tantallon?
- The Douglases (Red Douglases, Earls of Angus)
- The Ruthvens
- The Gordons
- Who besieged Tantallon in 1528?
- King James V
- Elizabeth I
- The Vikings
- What is exceptional about Tantallon's defence?
- A vast wall protecting its one landward side
- A hundred-metre moat
- A glass dome