Dunglass Castle, East Lothian
In September 1547, during the war now known as the Rough Wooing, Dunglass was captured by the forces of the Duke of Somerset from George Douglas of Pittendreich,[3] and was refortified and garrisoned by the English.
According to the English journalist of the campaign, William Patten, the Scottish captain of the castle, Matthew Home, had only 21 soldiers, and surrendered without a fight.
[6] In January 1549, the French landed two boat loads of ladders at Dunbar, intending to attack the English garrison, but they did not make an assault.
[9] A new artillery fortification was built on new a site nearby overlooking the remains of the older castle of the Home family, set out by Richard Lee.
The Earl of Shrewsbury envisaged the fortified site would be a base for the whole English army, but Protector Somerset objected to the increasing cost.
He obtained a plan made by a spy in December 1548, and commented that the fort itself was small, and had no battery of guns on one side which was defended only by the steep valley of the Dunglass water.
[23] After going to Jedburgh to hold justice courts, and viewing the English town of Berwick-upon-Tweed from Calf Hill in April 1588, James VI rode to Dunglass Castle to banquet with Lord Home.
[25] James VI made a hunting trip to the area in February, planning to visit Dunglass, Spott, Beil, Waughton, and Seton.
[26] In October 1595 Christian Douglas, Lady Home moved her best household goods from Dunglass to Fife, sparking rumours of a marital separation.
[28] King James alarmed the English garrison by coming to hunt near Berwick-upon-Tweed, staying a night the house of the laird of Billie, six miles from Berwick, and then returning to Dunglass.
[29] The castle was rebuilt, in an enlarged and improved form, and gave accommodation on 5 and 6 April 1603 to King James,[30] and all his retinue, on his journey to London to take up the English throne at the Union of the Crowns.
[34] David Hume of Godscroft wrote a Latin verse to be said on this occasion which contrasted Mary's rebuilding of the earl's houses with the destruction wrought by her grandfather during the war of the Rough Wooing.
[35] He refers to the improving work of her English hand;Mentiar; aut nullis horrendam ducimus Anglam,Judice te; vultum respice, sive animum.Nec fera miscemus, truculento, proelia, Marte:Sed colimus, casti, foedera sancta, thori.Hinc surgunt mihi structa palatia, diruit AnglaQuae quondam, melior iam struit Angla manus:Hinc quam fausta tibi procederet UNIO, si sicExemplo, saperes Insula tota, meo.
The King was escorted from Berwick to Dunglass on 12 June by 600 Home family followers wearing green satin doublets and white taffeta scarfs.
According to Scotstarvet, an English page, Edward Paris, vexed by an insult against his countrymen, thrust a red-hot iron into a powder barrel.
The Rough Wooing artillery fort, which survives in outline earthworks, was repurposed as a garden feature with a summerhouse and bowling green by Sir John Hall before 1760 when the antiquarian Richard Pococke saw it.
[47] Sir James Hall of Dunglass, who inherited the estate in 1776, commissioned architect and artist Alexander Nasmyth to design a new building on the site.
The First world War caused huge problems in terms of loss of the vast staff required (not just through death but through reluctance to return to such poor wages) and despite its recent modernisation the house fell into rapid decline.
