[2] Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria received from Malcolm III of Scotland, the lands of Dunbar as well as other parts of Lothian.

[2] In around 1184 Patrick of Dunbar married Ada, daughter of William the Lion and was created justiciar of Lothian.

[2] One of the competitors for the Scottish Crown in 1291 was Patrick Black Beard, Earl of Dunbar who claimed it through his royal grandmother, Ada.

[2] Patrick's wife was a Comyn who held Dunbar Castle for John Balliol, although she was forced to surrender it in April 1296.

[2] However despite Dunbar's apparent treachery he made peace with his cousin, King Robert, and was present at the Parliament at Ayr in 1315.

[2] The English attacked the castle with all the siege craft technology of the fourteenth-century including a machine called a "Sow".

[2] However, Black Agnes personally directed the machine's destruction by rocks being hurled from the castle walls.

[2] The siege lasted nineteen weeks and the Earl of Salisbury retired leaving Agnes in possession of her husband's fortress.

[2] The Earl arranged for his daughter to marry a son of Robert III of Scotland however due to the influence of the Clan Douglas the marriage did not take place.