I arrive at North Berwick Railway Station at around
lunchtime and walk out of the town and along the coast road. The waters of the Forth are grey and choppy
and the Bass Rock is still white with the thousands of gannets who came to nest
on it during the summer. They will soon
fly off to the warmer climes of Morocco.
As the cold wind from the sea cuts through me I think that one day it
would be nice to follow them for a bit of winter warmth.
The pavement along the road soon ends and I walk
along the grass verge and past Tantallon Castle. An imposing ruin perched on the cliffs above
the sea. About a mile further on I come
to the road that leads down to Seacliff and the beach there. I follow this down for a little while and
then turn off into a muddy path through the woods. Through the nettles and dying back stalks of
plants unknown I walk to the dark and overgrown ruins of Auldhame Castle.
The castle sits on the cliffs that overlook
Seacliff beach, in an area where one of the three corpses of Saint Baldred of
Tyninghame is said to be buried. Saint
Baldred was a Northumbrian monk who is believed to have founded an abbey at
Tyninghame. He also had a small
hermitage on the Bass Rock, though sometimes lived in a cave on Seacliff
beach. After his death there was a
disagreement between three of the parishes, he had close association with, as
to who should get his body. Holy men
from each parish spent the night together in prayer and the next morning there
were three bodies of Saint Baldred lying there - one for each parish. So, everyone went home happy with a body to
bury.
Auldhame
Castle was built in the early 16th century for Sir Adam Otterburn (1491-1548). He
was a lawyer and a diplomat who served the Scottish Monarchy. He was the Kings Advocate to James V of
Scotland and Secretary to Mary of Guise.
He also served as the Provost of Edinburgh. In 1534, on behalf of King James V of
Scotland, he went to London and signed a border peace treaty between Scotland
and England. In 1536, he was again sent
to London after Henry VIII had requested a meeting with James V. There he discussed the motives for the meeting
and also what the agenda would be. In
1538 he wrote a speech to welcome Mary of Guise to Edinburgh, who had recently
married James V. Otterburn then had a
bit of a falling out with James and spent some time in prison before being
deprived of his office and fined £1000.
When James died in 1542, the Earl of Arran took over as Regent and politics
in Scotland heated up somewhat with various factions and rivalries forming. Henry VIII of England made an agreement with the Earl of
Arran that the daughter of James, the infant Queen Mary of Scots, should marry
his son, Prince Edward. Some in Scotland favoured the marriage while others
preferred to keep their alliance with France. Mary of Guise persuaded the Earl of Arran
that the agreement should be reneged, and this then led to an English invasion,
which was given the name the Rough Wooing.
In 1544, the English army
landed at Granton and Otterburn was sent to negotiate with them. However, they refused to negotiate and burned
the town of Leith and parts of Edinburgh.
In 1547, Otterburn travelled to Hampton Court to negotiate with the then
King of England, Edward VI, to try and avoid the conflict between the two
countries resuming. Again, his
negotiations failed, though he was sent away with a gift of £75 for his
efforts. He then wrote to the Earl of
Arran telling him about the preparations he had seen the English army making
and how ready and prepared they were for war.
The earl of Arran ignored his warnings, and the Scottish army was defeated
at the Battle of Pinkie later that year.
In 1548, Otterburn died after being assaulted in Edinburgh by the Laird
of Annestoun, Patrick Mure, who was a servant of the Earl of Arran. Mure and his son were charged with treason
and murder, but it is unclear what happened to them and if any further
proceedings took place.
Auldhame Castle was originally an L plan tower house. The main building consisted of three storeys with a projecting stair tower.
.jpg "The ruins of Auldhame Castle circa 1892")
There is not much left of the building now, just
the outer wall that faces to the sea and part of the vaulted basement. In the basement someone has built a barbecue
with old stone and a wire shopping basket.
It looks quite new and is maybe someone’s Covid hidey-hole. It is sheltered from the wind and with a fire
going it would be quite a comfortable drinking den.
Outside, against the inside of the outer wall, a
tree has fallen, and I scramble up this to a ledge by one of the second storey
windows. The view from this must have
been pretty spectacular back in the day but is now blocked by dense
woodland. Below me I can hear the waves
crashing on the beach and children shouting.
Around me crows caw and pigeons coo and small creatures scrabble around
in the undergrowth.
Near to the window, there is a narrow opening in
the wall. I place a Skulferatu there and
scramble back down.
The coordinates for the location of the
Skulferatu are –
Latitude 56.053061
Longitude -2.639833
I
used the following sources for information on Auldhame Castle –
