Dunbar Castle *
Region: Lothian & Scottish Borders
© Copyright Richard West and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Description:
It takes a bit of imagination to picture the unusual piece of masonry overlooking Dunbar Harbour as it once stood—one of Scotland’s most formidable castles. Perched on several rocky stacks rising from the water, the fortress controlled all shipping with a massive steel chain stretched across the harbour mouth. This was the very castle famously defended for six weeks in 1338 by ‘Black Agnes’, Countess of Douglas, who used a giant catapult to hold off the Earls of Arundel and Salisbury.
A reconstruction of Dunbar castle by Andrew Spratt
In April 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots visited her son (the later James VI) at Stirling for the last time. On her way back to Edinburgh on 24 April, Mary was abducted, willingly or not (?), by Lord Bothwell and his men and taken to Dunbar Castle, where he may have raped her. On 6 May, Mary and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh. That very same year 1567 parliament ordered Dunbar Castle to be destroyed.