east-lothian-1924/05-134

Transcription

NORTH BERWICK.] INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN. [NORTH BERWICK.

The wall heads are 8 feet high, the gables are
skewed and have rudimentary skew-puts.
Internally the structure measures 25 feet
by 14 feet 6 inches. East of the entrance and
in the same wall there is a benatura in freestone.
The head is roughly ogival, but the bowl,
which has projected, is broken. The east
gable contains a recess, which also has a head
roughly ogival, constructed in red porphyry.
This was possibly a credence ; in it lies part
of an image too fragmentary to be identified.
At the end of the south wall is a small rect-
angular recess, undressed.
The ruin, despite its exposed situation, is in
a fair state of preservation.
HISTORICAL NOTE.-" 1542, The v. day of
January, M. Vilhelm Gybsone, Suffraganeus to
David Beton, Cardynall and Archbysschop of
Sant Andros, consecrat and dedicat the paris
kirk in the Craig of the Bass, in honor of Saint
Baldred, bysschop and confessor, &c." (Ex-
tracta e Variis Cronicis Scocie, Abbotsford
Club, p. 255). According to an unprinted bull
of Innocent VIII. the " parish church " of the
Bass was " newly erected " in 1492 and the
" rector " at that time was Robert Lauder.

iii. N.W. 9 July 1920

CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC STRUCTURES.

106. Tantallon Castle.-This castle, which
is situated about 2 1/2 miles east of North Ber-
wick, is built on one of the many small pro-
montories which, at this part of the coast line,
project into the Firth of Forth (fig. 101). The
site has been chosen with a view to economical
fortification and is the most suitable in the
vicinity for this purpose. The castle may
briefly be described as consisting of a great
screen wall thrown across the promontory
between points where the cliffs, rising sheer
from the sea to an elevation of some 100 feet,
are quite unscaleable and enclose to seaward an
oblong area measuring 250 feet from north-
north-west to south-south-east by 150 feet from
east-north-east to west-south-west (figs. 14 and
102).
OUTWORKS.-The castle is naturally pro-
tected to seaward, but the landward approach
is defended by a series of outworks, as shown
on the block plan. Some 200 yards west of
the castle there are an outermost ditch and a

61

rampart, returning before the castle between
the indentations on either side of the site, while
a second and greater ditch, apparently cut
through rock, is excavated 100 yards nearer
the castle; this latter has an outer earthen
rampart and an inner one which has been faced
with a heavy rubble wall but is constructed of
rubbish, in which is found cinder, pottery and
bone. There is an enclosure resembling a rave-
lin projecting westwards from the outer ram-
part. Between the angle of the ravelin and

[illustration inserted]
FIG. 101.-Tantallon Castle and the Bass (No. 106).

that of the outmost ditch and rampart is a
circular mound of sand about 32 feet in dia-
[marginal note]
?
meter and 3-5 feet high. As the middle ditch
returns southwards, it takes an eastward curve
and terminates in a gunlooped flanking wall
with a circular tower, also loop-holed, at the
southern end and a gateway on the north in line
with the inner rampart. East of the gateway
the flanking wall has apparently returned east-
wards and terminated in a second circular tower
at the edge of the innermost ditch, which is
cut through rock and which returns across the
promontory immediately in front of and
parallel to the castle (see fig. 14).
DOVECOT.-In the area enclosed by the two
inner ditches there is a 17th century dovecot,
oblong on plan, containing two chambers (fig.
26).
CASTLE BUILDINGS.-The buildings consist
of a central gatehouse or Mid Tower, from
which extends to the north-west and east-north-
east a great curtain wall about 50 feet in height,
terminating at either extremity of the site in
circled towers (figs. 103 and 104). The north-
ern side of the enclosure is occupied by the
ruins of a range of buildings (fig. 105); the east
and south sides are now open but originally
would be enclosed by the high screen walls of

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Douglas Montgomery

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