Newark Castle is a large, ruined tower house

Tower house

A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation.-History:Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountain or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces...

 standing in the grounds of Bowhill House

Bowhill House

Bowhill House is a historic house near Bowhill at Selkirk in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is a member of the Historic Houses Association, and is one of the homes of the Duke of Buccleuch...

, in the valley of the Yarrow Water three miles west of Selkirk 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...

. In addition to the keep

Keep

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...

, sections of a gatehouse and wall survive.

Newark Castle was granted to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown

Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas

Archibald Douglas was a Scottish nobleman and General, son of Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas and Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter of Robert III...

 around 1423. It was incomplete at this time and work continued until about 1475. The surrounding barmkin

Barmkin

Barmkin, also spelled barmekin or barnekin, is a Scots word which refers to a form of medieval and later defensive enclosure, typically found around smaller castles, tower houses, pele towers, and bastle houses in Scotland, and the north of England. It has been suggested that etymologically the...

 was added around 1550, and the present battlements and two square caphouses date from about 1600.

After the fall of the Black Douglases

Clan Douglas

Clan Douglas is an ancient Scottish kindred from the Scottish Lowlands taking its name from Douglas, South Lanarkshire, and thence spreading through the Scottish Borderland, Angus, Lothian and beyond. The clan does not currently have a chief, therefore it is considered an armigerous clan.The...

 the castle was held by the crown, and in 1473 it was given to Margaret of Denmark, wife of James III

James III of Scotland

James III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...

. The royal arms are visible on the west gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

. Newark was unsuccessfully besieged 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...

 army in 1547, but was burnt the following year. In 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 100 royalist followers of the Marquis of Montrose

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...

 were shot in the barmkin of Newark after the Battle of Philiphaugh

Battle of Philiphaugh

The Battle of Philiphaugh was fought on 13 September 1645 during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. The Royalist army of the Marquess of Montrose was destroyed by the Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie, restoring the power of the Committee of Estates.-Prelude:When...

.

The castle was altered for Anna, Duchess of Monmouth and Buccleuch

Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch

Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch was a wealthy Scottish peeress.Anne was the daughter of Francis Scott, 2nd Earl of Buccleuch. In 1661, she succeeded to her sister's titles of 4th Countess of Buccleuch, 5th Baroness Scott of Buccleuch and 5th Baroness Scott of Whitchester and Eskdaill...

 at the end of the 17th century. It was visited by Sir Walter Scott and William

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....

 and Dorothy Wordsworth

Dorothy Wordsworth

Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth was an English author, poet and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close for all of their lives...

in 1831.
The castle is believed to be haunted by the souls of women and children murdered by brutal soldiers at the site, who are heard each year on September 13th.