east-lothian-1924/05-051

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN.

of Yester are more fragmentary, but the steep promontory site at the
junction of two streams does not seem to have allowed of the erection of
towers on the line of the curtain, even if such had been thought desirable.
The Goblin Ha' at Yester is a unique feature, so far as Scotland is concerned,
not yet satisfactorily accounted for. It is clear, however (see No. 251) that
there was a thirteenth century structure on this site, and it is possible that
the Goblin Ha' is the only survival of this, with which it would have been
in more direct and obvious relation than it is to the present structure, which
may therefore really be later in origin, as it looks to be. Dunbar Castle
existed from early times but had a chequered history in the matter of de-
struction and reconstruction, so that the scattered fragments left represent
work of relatively late periods (See No. 36).
To the late fourteenth century may be attributed the west range of the
inner buildings at Yester and some details at Hailes. It is impossible to say
how far these early castles suffered from the avowed policy of Robert the Bruce
of destroying such places as might serve as bases for the invading English.
It was thereafter no part of Scottish military policy to maintain strongholds
for resistance in such an event. We know, too, that a castle existed at
Tantallon (No. 106) in 1374 and therefore probably some time earlier, so that
the older parts of the existing remains must be assigned to this period. At
the same time certain of the details, such as the mouldings on some windows
and fireplaces, suggest a later date at least for these features.
All these early buildings have been to some extent worked over and added
to at later times. Both at Tantallon and at Dirleton the entrance has been
lengthened in order to be made more difficult. At Tantallon there is the
special interest of the filling in of internal vacancies in the fore curtain by
James V., which is described in detail by the historian Lindsay of Pitscottie,
and which is easily discernible. A good deal of work was being done about 1538
on behalf of the King towards " the repair and building (edificationem) of the place
of Tomtalloun.¹ " Also in 1543 there was the beginning of a reconstruction
of the 'lodgings' within, so that much building along the north curtain wall must
be of that time. Dirleton was somewhat modified in plan by the erection of the
great house along the thickened eastern wall, and this work appears from details
[Marginal note] later on plan
to be of the early fifteenth century. A sixteenth century erection was placed in
front of the inner face of the earliest buildings to the south, but itself took the place
of a prior building. Yester and Hailes both show structures more or less fragmentary
of fifteenth century work, in the case of Hailes altered in the century following.
The effect of a site in determining the lay out of buildings is well shown
at Innerwick (No. 87), where we have them confined to an upstanding rock
of restricted extent. The surface of this rock is covered with the ruins of
buildings, of which the central mass is the tower assailed by Somerset in 1547,
while immediately before and behind are the relics of later buildings.
Other tower residences of lairds survive in good condition at Lennoxlove
(No. 70), where it is embodied in the modern mansion, at Elphinstone
(No. 192) Preston (No. 156) where the seventeenth century addition has been
imposed within and above the parapet of the older structure, Redhouse (No. 7)

1 Exch. Rolls. xvii p. 120 ; Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. ii p. 403.

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