Kilspindie Castle
| Kilspindie Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Remains of Kilspindie Castle |
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| Creation time : | 16th Century | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | only remnants of the wall | |
| Standing position : | Scottish nobility | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Aberlady | |
| Geographical location | 56 ° 0 '36.7 " N , 2 ° 51' 53.3" W | |
| Height: | 10 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Kilspindie Castle is the ruins of a low castle in the village of Aberlady in the East Lothian administrative division of Scotland . The remains of the castle are behind the Victorian Church of Mary (St Mary's Kirk). An earlier castle was destroyed there in the 16th century and the rebuilt tower was demolished in the 18th century. The remains include little more than a few scattered stones from the foundation of an entrance and a piece of wall with oval loopholes . The site of the former castle is a Scheduled Monument . Another ruin called "Kilspindie Castle" was in Butterdean near Coldingham .
history
Early history
Metal finds on the castle grounds show its settlement from the earliest times. Most of the Anglo-Saxon remains were found there in a single location in Scotland.
Clan Douglas
An early fortress belonged to the Spens or Spence family , possibly vassals of their masters, the Earls of Dunbar of the Gospatric family . The Douglas family acquired the lands of Kilspindie in the early 16th century after Archibald "Bell-the-cat", 5th Earl of Angus, severed a leg from Spens with one blow of his great sword in a feud . The Douglas family came into possession of the Aberlady lands through rights granted by the Scottish Crown and Bishop Gavin Douglas , Bishop of Dunkeld , perhaps indicative of the adoption of the name "Kilspindie" from a Perthshire village of the same name . The later use of the title "Greysteil" by Sir Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie may refer to the blow with the sword that Sir Archibald carried out in order to take the lands of Kilspindie. The fourth son of the Earl by his second marriage was Lord Treasurer of Scotland from 1520 to 1528 .
Kilspindie Castle survived the looting of the Rough Wooing Wars in the 1540s when castles, abbeys and villages across Lothian and the Scottish Borders were stormed, looted and burned down. The English invaders had avoided attacking Tantallon Castle , the seat of the Earl of Angus, and Hugh Douglas' Longniddry Tower because Hugh Douglas was "assured Scot," perhaps a token of English diplomacy to protect the interests of the Douglases in Lothian.
In 1547, however, the English returned to Lothian and defeated the Scots in the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh near Musselburgh . The following year they built a fort in Haddington and pillaged the castles nearby. Luffness Castle was destroyed so that the English supplies could be landed in Haddington undisturbed. Presumably Kilspindie Castle was also destroyed because it was on '' Aberlady Bay ''.
A new castle
Patrick Douglas from Kilspindie had a new "Castell Toure and Fortalice" built before 1600, possibly as early as 1558. This tower is said to have had a rectangular floor plan. It is possible that the castle was surrounded by an enclosure wall with a gatehouse , which protected the stables, the brewery, barns, etc. This enclosure, in turn, was surrounded by a deep ditch which was filled by the tide and whose wooden dams prevented the water from flowing back at low tide. The surrounding land was also salt marsh , which further strengthened the defensive position of the castle.
In 1612 Alexander Hay received Kilspinidie Castle through his marriage to Sir Patrick's widow on January 16, 1582. Kilspindie Castle was not mentioned in Oliver Cromwell's looting of the Lothian castles in the 1650s, but by the 18th century the castle had already been demolished and that Building materials have been used elsewhere in Aberlady. A number of large stones that belonged to the castle were set in field walls along the road to today's golf course. A heavily misted door of the building can now be found in Luffness House .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Andrew Spratt: Reconstruction of Kilspindie Castle . Maybole.org. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
- ↑ Scheduled Monument - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ↑ a b c The Glebe and Kilspindie Castle . Aberlady Heritage. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
- ^ Herbert Maxwell: A History of the House of Douglas from the Earliest Times down to the Legislative Union of England and Scotland . Freemantle, London 1902. p. 96.
- ↑ a b Gullane - East Lothian . NorthBerwick.org. Retrieved October 12, 2017.