east-lothian-1924/05-090

Transcription

DUNBAR.] -- HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION. -- [DUNBAR.

masonry and on this the castle proper stood ;
an isolated and precipitous rock 25 yards to
the south-west is surmounted by a great
battery and united to the castle by a massive
screen wall of masonry containing a mural
passage giving communication between these
portions. The rock is a brown basalt,
fissured and caverned by the water. The
remains of building yearly become less,
since no attempt at conservation is made.
The main portion of the site has been
cleft to provide an entrance to the new
harbour, and in this operation portions of
the castle buildings may have been destroyed.

[illustration inserted]
FIG. 62.-Sketch of Dunbar Castle from Miller's Dunbar (1830) (No. 36).

The remains appear to be those of a castle
with gatehouse and a walled enceinte. The
masonry is of the local red freestone, ashlar
faced and rubble cored. The gatehouse is of
a 15th century type and probably is what is
left of the ' barbican ' then erected. The
numerous gunloops are evidence of a relatively
late date. Miller1 gives the dimensions of the
main portion as 165 feet from east to west
with a length of 207 feet from north to south.
The isolated battery is inaccessible, for the
connecting passage, which is 69 feet long, is
broken. This must be the early 16th century
" blockhouse " referred to below. The struc-
ture is roughly octagonal on plan and measures
54 feet by 60 feet within walls 8 feet thick,
which are recessed to form gun emplacements.
These have gun ports 4 feet wide externally,
diminishing to 16 inches at daylight. Grose
(1798) and Miller (1830) in their illustrations

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show the curtains terminating in salient
circled and angular towers, which are said by
Miller to have had communication with the
sea, and to " dip low in many places " (fig. 62).
HISTORICAL NOTE.-The importance of the
Dunbar position is obvious. The castle
covered the most convenient landing on the
coast beyond Berwick, and after Berwick
became finally English in 1483 that import-
ance was intensified for Scotland. But the
present ruins do not quite represent either the
castle for the possession of which a battle was
fought with the army of Edward I. in 1297 or
that defended against the Earl of Salisbury for

[illustration continued]
FIG. 62.-Sketch of Dunbar Castle from Miller's Dunbar (1830) (No. 36).

five months in 1338 by ' Black ' Agnes,
Countess of Dunbar. On the latter occasion
the place was blockaded on the sea side by
two great galleys and other smaller ships, but
Sir Alexander Ramsay, on a stormy night,
slipped through in a vessel from the Bass with
food and reinforcements.2 Experience showed
that the stronghold had been serviceable mainly
to English invaders or to rebellious lords in
league with that country. Therefore, after the
example on this line given by the Duke of
Albany and Earl of March, brother of James
III., it was in 1487 annexed to the Crown and
in 1488 ordered by Parliament to be " cassyne
doune and alutterly distroyit in sic wise that
ony fundment tharof be occasioun of biging
nor raparacione of the said castell in tyme to
cum."3 But this policy, of course, worked
both ways. It did not present the invader with
a fortified position, but neither did if provide