Fast Castle
| Fast Castle | |
|---|---|
| Coldingham,Berwickshire,Scotland GBgrid referenceNT860709 | |
 The landward approach to Fast Castle. The wall stack on the right has since collapsed. | |
  Fast Castle | |
| Coordinates | 55°55′57″N2°13′26″W/ 55.9324°N 2.2239°W |
| Type | Courtyard castle |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Private |
| Open to the public | Yes |
| Condition | Ruin |
| Site history | |
| Built | Unknown, rebuilt 1522 |
| Built by | First phase: unknown Second phase:Earl of Dunbar Third phase: George Home, 4th Lord Home |
| Materials | First phase: unknown Second phase: Stone |
Fast Castleis the ruined remains of a coastalfortressinBerwickshire,south-eastScotland,in theScottish Borders.It lies 4 miles (6.4 km) north west of the village ofColdingham,and just outside theSt Abb's HeadNational Nature Reserve,run by theNational Trust for Scotland.The site is protected as aScheduled Ancient Monument.[1]
The castle
[edit]Fast Castle, in its heyday, comprised a courtyard andkeep,built on a narrow sloping plateau, 27 by 82 metres (89 by 269 ft), on an eponymous promontory overlooking theNorth Sea.[2]Cliffs up to 45 metres (148 ft) high on either side rendered the castle relatively impregnable.[2]The plateau was surrounded by a curtain wall with towers, with the keep at the northern extremity of the promontory. The castle could only be reached by adrawbridgeover a narrow ravine, protected by abarbican.Little remains today of the keep or the courtyard walls except foundations, and a section of the north-east wall.[2]The layout of the castle is very similar to that ofDunnottar CastleinAberdeenshire,though Fast Castle is on a smaller scale. Access to the sea was via a pulley system with basket. There is a cave at the foot of the cliffs, which, it has been suggested, could once have acted as an access to the interior of the castle by its inhabitants.
History
[edit]It is unclear when the first structure appeared on the site, but its defensible position must have made it attractive to even the earliest inhabitants of the area. There is evidence ofIron Agehabitation here, and it was centrally positioned in theBritishkingdom ofBryneich,and itsAnglo-Saxonsuccessor state ofBernicia.
Fast Castle is first recorded in 1333.[2]In 1346 the site was occupied by anEnglishgarrison and was used as a base to pillage the surrounding countryside.[3]In 1410, a force led by Patrick Dunbar, second son of the10th Earl of Dunbar and Marchseized the castle and imprisoned the governor, Thomas Holden. Its new Scots governor William Haliburton was also able to seizeWark Castle,Northumberland,in 1419.
The castle fell into the hands of theHome family(pronounced "Hume" ), and in 1503 they hostedMargaret Tudor,daughter ofHenry VII of England,at Fast Castleen routeto her marriage toJames IV.Following the Scots' defeat and the death of James IV at thebattle of Floddenin 1513, in which numerous Homes were killed, a power struggle ensued between theRegent Albanyand various other nobles includingAlexander Home, 3rd Lord Home,Chamberlain of Scotland.Fast Castle was destroyed in the chaos in 1515, and Alexander Home was executed in 1516 and his land forfeit.[3]
The castle was rebuilt by 1522, when the Home estates were restored to Alexander's brotherGeorge Home, 4th Lord Home.During the "Rough Wooing"of Scotland byHenry VIII,the castle was captured again by the English in 1547, but was back in Scottish hands by the time ofMary, Queen of Scots' stay here in 1566.[3]The recapture of Fast Castle from the English is said to have been instigated by Madge Gordon, a Coldingham widow.[4]Again back in the ownership of the Homes, the English ambassadorNicholas Throckmortonstayed at the castle with the5th Lord Homeon 11 July 1567, where he was "intretyed very well, according to the state of the place, which is fitter to lodge prisoners than folks at liberty, as yt is very little so yt is very stronge."[5]
The castle passed to SirRobert Logan of Restalrigthrough his mother, a widow of Lord Home. It was briefly recaptured by the English in 1570.[3]Fast castle was well armed: some of the guns were taken toBerwick on Tweedduring the English intervention against the supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots in the 1570s. These cannon included two brass merlins and fourfalcons.[6]In April 1584 the keepers of Fast Castle,Innerwick,andTantallonwere commanded to surrender their castles to the crown.[7]
Sir Robert Logan was a notorious dissolute and "ne'er do well" who was implicated in theGowrie conspiracyto kidnap the youngKing James VI.In 1594, Logan contracted with the famed mathematician (and supposed wizard)John Napierto search Fast Castle for treasure. He was to "...do his utmost diligence to search and seek out, and by all craft and ingine to find out the same, and by the grace of God either find out the same, or make it sure that no such thing has been there."[8]For this, he was to be awarded a third of any treasure found. There is no record of any discovery he may have made. Logan died in 1606, and his estates forfeited in 1609, his corpse having been exhumed and put on trial.
The castle was by now ruinous. It passed briefly to the Douglas family, then back to the Earls of Dunbar, then the family of Arnot, back to the Homes and finally to the Hall family. The castle is accessible from nearby Dowlaw farm with a steep trail leading to it. A concrete footway now replaces the drawbridge. Between 1971 and 1986 excavations were carried out at Fast Castle by the Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society.[9]
Fast Castle was originally known asFause (lit. False) Castle,on account of the lights that were hung from it to mislead shipping. Shipmasters would see the lights while travelling in darkness, and consider that they had reached a safe haven, only to find that they had been guided on to rocks, wherewrecking partiesawaited for plunder.[citation needed]
Literary links
[edit]
The castle is thought to have inspiredSir Walter Scott's description of the fictional "Wolf's Crag", which features in his 1819 novelThe Bride of Lammermoor.[10]Fast Castle and Logan ofRestalrigboth appear inNigel Tranter's trilogy of historical novels,The Master of Grayseries. The castle also features heavily in Tranter'sMail Royal,a sequel to the former trilogy. It is the setting forKathleen Fidler's 1970 children's storyThe Gold of Fast Castle.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Historic Environment Scotland."Fast Castle,950m NNE of Dowlaw (SM4328)".Retrieved21 February2019.
- ^abcd"Fast Castle, Site Reference NT87SE 1".CANMORE.Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
- ^abcd"Fast Castle".Gazetteer for Scotland.
- ^Wilson, John Mackay (1885). "The Guidwife of Coldingham; or, the Surprise of Fast Castle".Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland: Historical, Traditionary, & Imaginative.Vol. VI. pp. 1–21.
- ^Stevenson, Joseph, ed.,Selections from unpublished manuscripts in the College of Arms and the British Museum illustrating the reign of Mary Queen of Scotland,(1837),p. 197
- ^Calendar State Papers Scotland,vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 156.
- ^David Masson,Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: 1578-1585,vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1880), pp. 649, 657.
- ^"Weaknesses of the Wise".Chambers Edinburgh Journal.Vol. 132. 9 August 1834. p. 217.
- ^"About us".Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society. Archived fromthe originalon 24 June 2009.
- ^"Fast Castle Berwickshire by John Horsburgh after the Rev. J. Thomson".The Walter Scott Digital Archive.Edinburgh University Library.
External links
[edit]
- Douglas, William (1921)."Fast Castle and its owners: some notes on their history"(PDF).Proceedings of theSociety of Antiquaries of Scotland.55:56–83. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 11 June 2007.Retrieved6 January2011.
- Sepia postcard of Fast Castle,SCRAN
- Scottish Castles Photo Library - Fast Castle, Scottish Borders,Rampant Scotland
