Tantallon Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the cliffs of East Lothian, east of North Berwick, the ruins of Tantallon face the Bass Rock and the mouth of the Firth of Forth. The promontory is protected by the sea on three sides; only the landward side had to be closed off, by a red sandstone curtain wall of exceptional height and thickness, flanked by towers and fronted by a wide ditch. William Douglas, later 1st Earl of Douglas, built the castle in the mid-14th century; Historic Environment Scotland describes it as the last great curtain-walled castle built in Scotland. After the family split, Tantallon passed to the 'Red' Douglases, Earls of Angus, who held it for nearly three centuries and often clashed with the Crown: it was besieged by James IV in 1491 and James V in 1528, then adapted for artillery. In 1651 Cromwell's guns wrecked the towers and the castle was abandoned. Now cared for by Historic Environment Scotland, it can be visited with a ticket. Its dramatic ruins have appeared in several films, including A Castle for Christmas (Netflix, 2021).