[1] Agnes became renowned for her heroic defence of Dunbar Castle in East Lothian against an English siege led by William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury, which began on 13 January 1338 and ended on 10 June the same year during the Second War of Scottish Independence from 1331 to 1357.

[4] During the Middle Ages, it was the norm for a wife to take charge of a castle and manor business in her husband's absence and defend it if need be, but the stand of the Countess of Dunbar is one of the best remembered instances.

[5] When one of the Scottish archers struck an English soldier standing next to Salisbury, the earl cried out, "There comes one of my lady's tire pins; Agnes's love shafts go straight to the heart.

Agnes, of course, had meant to trap Salisbury, but she moved from stratagem to taunt, shouting at the earl, "Farewell, Montague, I intended that you should have supped with us, and assist us in defending the Castle against the English.

"[6] At one point, the English having taken her brother, John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray prisoner, he was brought to Dunbar and Montague threatened to hang him if the Countess did not surrender the castle.

[7] When supplies for her garrison began to run low after several months being cut off, Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, who had earned a reputation for being a constant thorn in the English king's side, moved from Edinburgh to the coast with 40 men.

[8] For centuries afterwards, Agnes Randolph's defence of Dunbar Castle caught the attention of contemporary chroniclers and Scottish historians due to her bravery and might.

Their estates were left to children of the marriage between the earl's cousin John de Dunbar of Derchester and Birkynside, and his wife, Isobel Randolph, Agnes' younger sister.