Fast Castle
Encyclopedia
Fast Castle is the ruined remains of a coastal fortress in Berwickshire
, south-east Scotland
, in the Scottish Borders
. It lies 4 miles (6.4 km) north west of the village of Coldingham
, and just outside of the St Abb's Head
National Nature Reserve
, run by the National Trust for Scotland
. The site is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument
.
, built on a narrow sloping plateau, 27 by, on an eponymous promontory overlooking the North Sea
. Cliffs up to 45 metres (147.6 ft) high on either side rendered the castle relatively impregnable. 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 a drawbridge
over a narrow ravine, protected by a barbican
. Little remains today of the keep or the courtyard walls except foundations, and a section of the north-east wall. The layout of the castle is very similar to that of Dunnottar Castle
in Aberdeenshire
, 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.
habitation here, and it was centrally positioned in the British
kingdom of Bryneich, and its Anglo-Saxon
successor state of Bernicia
.
Fast Castle is first recorded in 1333. In 1346 the site was occupied by an English
garrison and was used as a base to pillage the surrounding countrysidena. In 1410, a force led by Patrick Dunbar, second son of the 10th Earl of Dunbar and March
seized the castle and imprisoned the governor, Thomas Holden. Its new Scots governor William Haliburton was also able to seize Wark Castle
, Northumberland
, in 1419.
The castle fell into the hands of the Home family
, and in 1503 they hosted Margaret Tudor
, daughter of Henry VII of England
, at Fast Castle en route to her marriage to James IV
. Following the Scots' defeat and the death of James IV at the battle of Flodden in 1513, in which numerous Homes were killed, a power struggle ensued between the Regent Albany
and various other nobles including Alexander 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.
The castle was rebuilt by 1522, when the Home estates were restored to Alexander's brother George Home, 4th Lord Home
. During the "Rough Wooing
" of Scotland by Henry VIII
, the castle was captured again by the English in 1547, but was back in Scottish hands by the time of Mary, Queen of Scots' stay here in 1566. The recapture of Fast Castle from the English is said to have been instigated by Madge Gordon, a Coldingham widow. The story is recorded in John Mackay Wilson's Tales of the Borders, published in 1885. It was briefly recaptured by the English in 1570.
Again back in the ownership of the Homes, it passed to Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig
through his mother, a widow of the 5th Lord Home
. Sir Robert was a notorious dissolute and "ne'er do well" who was implicated in the Gowrie conspiracy
to kidnap the young King James VI
. In 1594, Logan contracted with the famed mathematician (and supposed wizard) John Napier
to 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." 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.
Fast Castle was originally known as Fause (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 thet they had been guided on to rocks, where wrecking parties
awaited for plunder.
. Fast Castle and Logan of Restalrig
both appear in Nigel Tranter
's trilogy of historic novels, The Master of Gray series. The castle also features heavily in Tranter's Mail Royal, a sequel to the former trilogy.
Berwickshire
Berwickshire or the County of Berwick is a registration county, a committee area of the Scottish Borders Council, and a lieutenancy area of Scotland, on the border with England. The town after which it is named—Berwick-upon-Tweed—was lost by Scotland to England in 1482...
, south-east Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, in the Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
. It lies 4 miles (6.4 km) north west of the village of Coldingham
Coldingham
Coldingham is a historic village in Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, on Scotland's southeast coastline, north of Eyemouth.As early as AD 660, Coldingham was the site of a religious establishment of high order, when it is recorded that Etheldreda, the queen of Egfrid, became a nun at the Abbey of...
, and just outside of the St Abb's Head
St Abb's Head
St. Abb's Head is a rocky promontory at the village of St. Abbs, Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, and a National Nature Reserve administered by the National Trust of Scotland...
National Nature Reserve
National Nature Reserve
For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...
, run by the National Trust for Scotland
National Trust for Scotland
The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland describes itself as the conservation charity that protects and promotes Scotland's natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations to...
. The site is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...
.
The castle
Fast Castle, in its heyday, comprised a courtyard and keepKeep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
, built on a narrow sloping plateau, 27 by, on an eponymous promontory overlooking the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. Cliffs up to 45 metres (147.6 ft) high on either side rendered the castle relatively impregnable. 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 a drawbridge
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...
over a narrow ravine, protected by a barbican
Barbican
A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from...
. Little remains today of the keep or the courtyard walls except foundations, and a section of the north-east wall. The layout of the castle is very similar to that of Dunnottar Castle
Dunnottar Castle
Dunnottar Castle is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the north-east coast of Scotland, about two miles south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th–16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been an early fortress of the Dark Ages...
in Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
, 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
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 of Iron AgeBritish Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...
habitation here, and it was centrally positioned in the British
Brython
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
kingdom of Bryneich, and its Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
successor state of Bernicia
Bernicia
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
.
Fast Castle is first recorded in 1333. In 1346 the site was occupied by an English
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
garrison and was used as a base to pillage the surrounding countrysidena. In 1410, a force led by Patrick Dunbar, second son of the 10th Earl of Dunbar and March
George I, Earl of March
George de Dunbar, 10th Earl of Dunbar and March , 12th Lord of Annandale and Lord of the Isle of Man, was "one of the most powerful nobles in Scotland of his time, and the rival of the Douglases."-Family:...
seized the castle and imprisoned the governor, Thomas Holden. Its new Scots governor William Haliburton was also able to seize Wark Castle
Wark on Tweed
Wark on Tweed is a village in the English county of Northumberland. It lies about south west of Berwick-upon-Tweed...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, in 1419.
The castle fell into the hands of the Home family
Earl of Home
The title Earl of Home was created in 1605 in the Peerage of Scotland for Alexander Home of that Ilk, who was already the 6th Lord Home.The Earl of Home holds the subsidiary titles of Lord Home , and Lord Dunglass , in the Peerage of Scotland; and Baron Douglas, of Douglas in the County of Lanark ...
, and in 1503 they hosted Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor was the elder of the two surviving daughters of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the elder sister of Henry VIII. In 1503, she married James IV, King of Scots. James died in 1513, and their son became King James V. She married secondly Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of...
, daughter of Henry VII of England
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, at Fast Castle en route to her marriage to James IV
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
. Following the Scots' defeat and the death of James IV at the battle of Flodden in 1513, in which numerous Homes were killed, a power struggle ensued between the Regent Albany
John Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany
John Stewart, Duke of Albany was Regent of the Kingdom of Scotland, Duke of Albany in peerage of Scotland and Count of Auvergne and Lauraguais in France.-Early life:...
and various other nobles including Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home
Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home
Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home His mother was Nicholace Ker, a daughter of George Ker of Samuelston, his father the 2nd Lord Home. Alexander Home was found guilty of treason in 1516 and executed....
, Chamberlain of Scotland. Fast Castle was destroyed in the chaos in 1515, and Alexander Home was executed in 1516 and his land forfeit.
The castle was rebuilt by 1522, when the Home estates were restored to Alexander's brother George Home, 4th Lord Home
George Home, 4th Lord Home
George Home, 4th Lord Home was a Scottish nobleman. The son of Alexander Home, 2nd Lord Home and his wife Nicola Ker, daughter of George Ker of Samuelston, he succeeded his brother, Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home, when he died on October 8, 1516....
. During the "Rough Wooing
The Rough Wooing
The War of the Rough Wooing was fought between Scotland and England. War was declared by Henry VIII of England, in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and Mary, Queen of Scots. Scotland benefited from French military aid. Edward VI continued the war until...
" of Scotland by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, the castle was captured again by the English in 1547, but was back in Scottish hands by the time of Mary, Queen of Scots' stay here in 1566. The recapture of Fast Castle from the English is said to have been instigated by Madge Gordon, a Coldingham widow. The story is recorded in John Mackay Wilson's Tales of the Borders, published in 1885. It was briefly recaptured by the English in 1570.
Again back in the ownership of the Homes, it passed to Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig
Robert Logan of Restalrig
Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig was a Scottish knight involved in the Gowrie House affair of 1600.The Logan family lived at Lochend Castle near Restalrig, and others of the name had been Provost of Leith...
through his mother, a widow of the 5th Lord Home
Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home
Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home was the son of George Home, 4th Lord Home and Mariotta Haliburton. He became Lord Home on the death of his father who was injured in a skirmish with the English two days before the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh.-Marriages:...
. Sir Robert was a notorious dissolute and "ne'er do well" who was implicated in the Gowrie conspiracy
John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie
John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie was a Scottish nobleman, the second son of William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie and his wife Dorothea Stewart...
to kidnap the young King James VI
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
. In 1594, Logan contracted with the famed mathematician (and supposed wizard) John Napier
John Napier
John Napier of Merchiston – also signed as Neper, Nepair – named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer & astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchistoun. He was the son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. John Napier is most renowned as the discoverer...
to 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." 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.
Fast Castle was originally known as Fause (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 thet they had been guided on to rocks, where wrecking parties
Wrecking (shipwreck)
Wrecking is the practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck which has foundered near or close to shore. Often an unregulated activity of opportunity in coastal communities, wrecking has been subjected to increasing regulation and evolved into what is now known as marine salvage...
awaited for plunder.
Literary links
The castle is thought have inspired Sir Walter Scott's description of the fictional "Wolf's Crag", which features in his 1819 novel The Bride of LammermoorThe Bride of Lammermoor
The Bride of Lammermoor is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, set in Scotland in the reign of Queen Anne . The novel tells of a tragic love affair between Lucy Ashton and her family's enemy Edgar Ravenswood. Scott indicated the plot was based on an actual incident...
. Fast Castle and Logan of Restalrig
Restalrig
Restalrig is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located east of the city centre, west of the A199 road, and to the east of Lochend, with which it overlaps. Restalrig Road is the main route through the area, running from London Road at Jock's Lodge, to Leith Links at the south edge of...
both appear in Nigel Tranter
Nigel Tranter
Nigel Tranter OBE was a Scottish historian and author.-Early life:Nigel Tranter was born in Glasgow and educated at George Heriot's School in Edinburgh. He trained as an accountant and worked in Scottish National Insurance Company, founded by his uncle. In 1933 he married May Jean Campbell Grieve...
's trilogy of historic novels, The Master of Gray series. The castle also features heavily in Tranter's Mail Royal, a sequel to the former trilogy.
External links
- Sepia postcard of Fast Castle, SCRANScranScran is a Scottish online resource for educational use by the public, schools, further education and higher education. It presents 360,000 images and sounds contributed by museums, galleries, archives and the media...
- Scottish Castles Photo Library - Fast Castle, Scottish Borders, Rampant Scotland