Duns Castle, Duns, Berwickshire is a historic house in Scotland, the oldest part of which, the massive Norman Keep or Pele Tower, dates from 1320.

The earlier house was transformed into a Gothic castle, 1818–22, by architect James Gillespie Graham. It is owned by the Laird, Alexander Hay of Duns and Drumelzier, a retired accountant. He and his wife, Aline, live at the castle.

There is a publicly accessible park and two man made lakes, the Hen Poo and the smaller Mill Dam.

The castle is often used for weddings and other functions.

Duns Castle

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Wedderburn Castle, near Duns, Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders, is an 18th-century country house that is now used as a wedding and events venue. The castle can be rented on an exclusive-use basis for parties, dinners and ceremonies for up to 80, with accommodation for up to 26 guests. In 2013, the Wedderburn Barns venue was launched in the former stable block at the castle. This offers a rustic space for up to 150 guests.

Wedderburn Castle is the historic family seat of the Home of Wedderburn family, cadets of the Home family (today Earls of Home). It was designed and constructed 1771–5 by the famous architect brothers Robert Adam and James Adam, with the work superintendent being James Nisbet, for Patrick Home of Billie, who had already completed Paxton House (using James Adam and Nisbet, with Robert Adam doing the interiors c. 1773). With battlemented three-storey elevations in the typical Adam Castle style, the apparent symmetry of Wedderburn Castle conceals a rectangular courtyard, originally filled by the 17th-century (or earlier) tower house, also known as Wedderburn Castle, of which only a heraldic panel remains. It was demolished in the early 19th century, leaving the courtyard accessed through an archway at the back.

The approach
The castle is approached by way of the north or Lion Gate of 1794 (see photograph at left) and the long drive (leading from the West gate), which passes the 18th-century stables (a square court entered through a pedimented archway) and the staff cottages, before continuing to the castle. The West Gate is another archway, but defined by screen walls and gabled lodges.

The castle interior
Entering the front of the castle through a large porch (above which is the Home of Wedderburn coat of arms), there is a double staircase with an iron balustrade leading up to a balcony, behind which is a long gallery connecting the drawing room and the dining room. Across the hall and above the front door is a long minstrel gallery, again connecting the drawing room and the dining room. On the right of the staircase are the drawing room, and the morning room (previously the smoking room), beyond which is the ballroom. There are several fine chimneypieces, the best being by Piranesi. To the left are the dining room, and a further staircase leading up to the bedrooms. The ground floor has a large kitchen and further bedrooms, originally for servants.

The owners
The Earls of Douglas had the feudal superiority of the lands of Wedderburn circa 1413, when Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas granted them as a feu to "his esquire, David de Home". In a charter dated at Dunbar Castle 29 February 1413, George de Dunbar, Earl of March, confirmed the previous charter granted by "his beloved brother, Archibald, Earl of Douglas", the superiority having passed, by forfeiture, from the Dunbar family to Douglas.

By 1550 the Homes had acquired the superiority of Wedderburn, as is indicated by a Sasine in favour of David Home, brother-german (full brother) and heir of George Home of Wedderburn (who was killed at the Battle of Pinkie), wherein it is stated that the heir and his brother held it of the Crown in chief.

Daughters of this branch of the Home family would keep Home and add it to their married name – hence subsequent generations of the family having variations including Forman Home, Milne Home, Home Robertson, and Home Miller. The current owners are David Home Miller and Catherine Macdonald-Home.

Wedderburn Castle

Cranshaws Castle or Cranshaws Tower is a privately owned 15th-century pele situated by the village of Cranshaws in Berwickshire, Scotland. The building is still in use as a residence, and is protected as a category A listed building.

The lands of Cranshaws were originally part of the Barony of Bothwell, which barony was created for David Olifard (ancestor of the current chief of the Oliphants) by King Malcolm IV in the mid 12th century. Occupancy (typically, this would have been a feu - the superiority remaining with the Barony of Bothwell) was then granted to a younger Olifard son, with whose line the estate remained for some centuries.

In 1329, the senior representative of the younger line but now 7th chief, William Oliphant, Lord of Aberdalgie, died and amongst the properties which he left was Cranshaws, which he had inherited from his Olifard forebears.

In 1336/7, William Olyphant’s lands of Cranschawes and Hatherwick (Hedderwick) were in the hands of Edward III., on account of this William’s forfeiture.

In the meantime, the Barony of Bothwell passed in 1252 by marriage to the Morays on the extinction of the senior line of Oliphants In. 1362 Joanna de Moravia, heiress of Bothwell, married Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas. Their son and heir was Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas (1372–1424).

In 1401 Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas bestowed Cranshaws upon Sir John Swinton, 14th of that Ilk whom the Earl calls "dilectus consanguineus nostra" (our beloved cousin)., thus dispossessing the Oliphants. Following Swinton's death at the Battle of Homildon Hill the following year, the lands passed to his son Sir John Swinton, 15th of that Ilk, who is thought to have built the existing castle (it is not known what kind of building the Oliphants had).

In 1403/4, the Earl of Dunbar and March was stripped of his Scottish lands, much of which were given to Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas. In 1409 the Earl of Dunbar was restored to his Earldom of March and it is probable that the Earl of Douglas attempted to transfer the superiority of Cranshaws to the Earldom of March some time before that date.

In 1435-6 Cranshaws was forfeited by the Earl of March but no record has survived of Cranshaws being connected to the Earldom of Dunbar and March before this date Circa 1460 there was a protracted battle for the superiority of Cranshaws which was being claimed for the Earldom of March.

The effective removal of the Cranshaws estate from the Oliphants without compensation or consent was the start of a dispute which lasted most of the 15th century:

1412 there is a charter of the lands of Cranshawes, wherein Walter (Oliphant), is called Lord of Aberdalgie.

1442: Sir John Oliphant was retoured heir to his grandfather in the lands of Cranshaws, his sasine thereon was taken Feb. 28, 1442/3 and was formally broken the next day by Sir John Swinton of that Ilk who also claimed these lands.

1464: there was an inquest over the dispute of ownership between Swinton and Lord Oliphant.

1474: Lord Oliphant petitioned the courts for ownership of Cranshaws.

1476: Lord Oliphant has indenture with Alexander, duke of Albany (and Earl of March) to pay 30 years "non entry" since the death of his father, Sir John Oliphant for the lands of Cranshaws. It goes on to say that no agreement to be entered into with Sir Johne of Swyntoune nor with any others of his name without special permission of the said duke, and then with payment to the duke of 1000 merks within 40 days; the duke gives Lord Oliphant permission to pursue Sir Johne of Swyntoune and his heirs and any others who have taken up "malis" from the lands of Cranschaws since the decease of Sir John Oliphant 

1476: Lord Oliphant claiming rights, "raided" Cranshaws, "stealing" oxen & horses.

The castle was re-acquired by another branch of the Douglas family, the Earls of Morton in the 18th century and there were extensive renovations carried out by George Douglas, 13th Earl of Morton (1662–1738).

The building was restored in 1896/97 by Andrew Smith of Witchester and in 1931 passed to his nephew Stenhard Landale FRSE.

Cranshaws Tower

Hume Castle is the heavily modified remnants of a late 12th- or early 13th-century castle of enceinte held by the powerful Hume or Home family, Wardens of the Eastern March who became successively the Lords Home and the Earls of Home. The village of Hume is located between Greenlaw and Kelso, two miles north of the village of Stichill, in Berwickshire, Scotland. (OS ref.- NT704413). It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, recorded as such by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS).

Standing as it does, on an impressive height above its eponymous castleton, it commands fine prospects across the Merse, with views to the English border at Carter Bar. It had historically been used as a beacon to warn of invasion. Its enormous walls were created in the 18th century but remnants of the central keep and other features can still be seen.

Origins
William de Home, son of Sir Patrick de Greenlaw (a younger son of Cospatric I, Earl of Dunbar), acquired the lands of Home in the early 13th century through marriage to his cousin Ada (the daughter of Patrick I, Earl of Dunbar). He then took his surname from his estate, a not uncommon practice of the time. It is assumed that he built the first stone fortifications at the site.

James II stayed at Home en route to the siege of Roxburgh Castle, the last English garrison left in Scotland following the Wars of Independence. (James was killed by an early bombard during the siege.)

Sixteenth century and the Rough Wooing
In August 1515 Regent Albany imprisoned members of the Hume family at Dunfermline, with Adam Tinmo, the Constable of Hume Castle. At this time, Scotland's Governor Regent Albany was planning to bring an army against the Hume family on the Scottish borders. Albany had captured Hume Castle, but according to a report of Cardinal Wolsey's chaplain, William Frankelayn, Lord Hume, Lord Chamberlain, retook the castle on 26 August, and kept Albany's captain, Lord Fleming's uncle, prisoner. Lord Hume then slighted his own castle, razed the walls, "and dammed the well for ever more."

Before the advent of artillery, Hume castle was considered almost impregnable. However, in 1547 it was captured, during the "Rough Wooing", by the Lord Protector Somerset. Regent Arran had sent 12 gunners to man the castle in August 1547. George Home, 4th Lord Home, was injured at the Battle of Pinkie and his son Alexander captured, After stout resistance by Mariotta (or Marion) Haliburton Lady Home, the castle fell and an English garrison installed. According to an English account, the castle was rendered by the negotiation of Lady Home after the English army encamped nearby at the Hirsel or Hare Craig. Although English artillery was placed to commence bombardment, no shot was fired by either side. Somerset Herald conveyed Lady Home's instructions to the reluctant garrison who would have preferred Lord Home's word. Sir Edward Sutton, described as a cousin of the Earl of Warwick, was made Captain of Hume, and received the keys from Andrew Home, Commendator of Jedburgh and Restennet, on Thursday 22 September 1547. There were seventy-eight Scots within, and Edward Sutton found guns including; 2 batard culverins; a saker; 3 brass falconets; and eight other iron guns. More guns were brought to hold the castle, and an English inventory of 31 December 1547 lists 21 cannons including 4 fowlers, and 40 hand-guns. Minor strengthening work was carried out by the English, on the advice of the military engineer William Ridgeway, but only £734 was spent, the local stone was unsuitable and limestone at Roxburgh too far away.

Mariotta, Lady Home, complained to Somerset on 2 November 1547 that she had, "been very sore examined for the rendering of Hume", and accused of taking money. Her reply was she thought it marvellous that anyone could think she could keep the "sober barmkin" of Hume against the English army, when all the nobles of Scotland could not keep the field. Hume was nearly lost in February 1548, when Captain Pelham travelled to Warkworth Castle to collect pay for the Spanish mercenary garrison. The soldiers planned to rob him and change sides. Loyal members of the garrison fired the beacon and Sir John Ellerker's men arrested the would-be deserters. One was killed escaping, and Grey of Wilton planned to hang six of them, but the two leaders escaped into Scotland.

After the death of his father, captive in the Tower, Alexander, the young 5th Lord Home, with the help of his brother Andrew the Commendator, recaptured the castle in December 1548. The first man in was Tulloch, a servant of the laird of Buccleuch. Edward Sutton was blamed for losing the castle by negligence to a night assault. Jean de Beaugué, a French soldier and writer, gave an account of the re-capture. He said that an inside-man let in seven Scots, and at night an eighth man climbed in. These then overwhelmed the garrison. In Jean's account the man who climbed the wall was a Home, aged 60. Sutton was still a prisoner at the end of the war, and the Earl of Shrewsbury was asked to organise his release by the exchange of French hostages.

Mariotta, Lady Home, sent the news to Mary of Guise on 28 December 1548 from Edinburgh. Regent Arran thanked John Hume of Cowdenknowes for his service recovering the castle. The English unsuccessfully attempted to recapture Hume in February 1549. Lady Home was once again installed in the castle in March 1549 and complained to Mary of Guise in March 1549 of the behaviour of the French and Spanish garrison obtaining credit from the villagers. When the English abandoned their fort at Lauder the guns there were dragged by oxen to Hume Castle.

Mary of Guise ordered the people of Sherriffdom of Berwick and Lauderdale to provide 320 oxen to remove the guns from Hume in February 1558. The cannons were taken to the fort at Eyemouth. The castle was again besieged in 1569 by the Earl of Sussex during his raid into Scotland. The defenders capitulated within twelve hours, in awe of his vastly superior firepower and numbers. Regent Morton gave money to Agnes Gray, Lady Home, in the 1570s to keep the castle garrisoned for James VI.

Downfall
The 17th century saw the demise of Hume Castle as a habitable fortress. The Earls of Home had already established a new seat at The Hirsel by 1611. However, the castle finally succumbed to the forces of Cromwell in 1650 during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. James, 3rd Earl of Home was a prominent member of the Kirk Party, and after Cromwell's successful investiture of Edinburgh Castle, he sent Colonel George Fenwick to beset the Earl's Castle with two regiments. Catherine Morrison, the Lady of Wedderburn, paid £6 to bring cannon to defend Hume. Colonel John Cockburn, the castle's Scottish governor, engaged in witty repartee with the Roundheads, but refused to deliver the castle. Colonel Cockburn feigned that he had no idea who Cromwell was and that the castle stood on a rock. He then sent a note to Fenwick with the following doggerel:

"I, Will of the Wastle
Am King of my castle
All the dogs in the town
Shall gare gang me down!"
However once the bombardment began, it became clear that there was no option but submission. Fenwick's troops entered the castle, and accepted Cockburn's surrender. Cockburn and his men were given quarter for life only. They retreated and Fenwick slighted the fortification.

Resurrection
In the early 18th century, Hume and its environs came into the possession of the Earls of Marchmont, wealthier and more influential cadets of the main line of the family. The Castle at this point was level with the ground that it was built upon. At some point before his death in 1794, Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont, 3rd Lord Polwarth, restored the castle as a folly, from the waste left from its destruction, on the original foundations of its curtain wall. He adorned the wall tops with enormous crenellations that are more picturesque than practical.

The Great Alarm
In light of its function as a mediæval early warning system, the castle was used again as a beacon during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1804, on the night of 31 January, a sergeant of the Berwickshire Volunteers in charge of the beacon mistook charcoal burners' fires on nearby Dirrington Great Law for a warning. Lighting the beacon at Hume Castle, he set in train the lighting of all the Borders beacons to the West, and 3,000 volunteers turned out in what became known as 'The Great Alarm'.

Again, during the Second World War it functioned as a lookout post, and was also to act as a base for resistance in the event of a German invasion.

Today
The castle is still seen as the spiritual home of the many Homes and Humes in Scotland and abroad. The castle was bought by the state in 1929, and in 1985 a restoration programme was undertaken by the Berwickshire Civic Society funded by the Scottish Office. It re-opened to the public in 1992. In 2006 the Civic Society handed over the castle to a charitable trust run by the Clan Home Association, under the auspices of Historic Scotland, to maintain its preservation in the future.

Hume Castle

Floors Castle, in Roxburghshire, south-east Scotland, is the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe. Despite its name it is a country house rather than a fortress. It was built in the 1720s by the architect William Adam for Duke John, possibly incorporating an earlier tower house. In the 19th century it was embellished with turrets and battlements by William Playfair for Duke James. Floors has the common 18th-century layout of a main block with two symmetrical service wings. Floors Castle lies on the River Tweed and overlooks the Cheviot Hills to the south.

Floors Castle is now a category A listed building, and the grounds are listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, the national listing of significant gardens in Scotland. It is open to the public. The castle featured in the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

Background
The Ker family, Earls and Dukes of Roxburghe, have held lands in Roxburghshire since the 12th century. Their origins are not certain, but they were likely of Norman stock originally. Since the accession of Sir James Innes as Duke in 1812, they have used the double-barelled name "Innes-Ker".

The name of Floors Castle is thought to come either from "flowers" (or the French fleurs), or from the "floors", or terraces, on which the castle is built.

Early history
Although the present Castle lacks all defensive capabilities, and was built in a period when private fortresses were redundant in lowland Scotland, there was possibly a tower house on the site. Tower houses, or pele towers, were typical of the Scottish Borders. Until the early seventeenth century, the Anglo-Scottish border lands, or "Marches", were a lawless place where reprisal attacks were common, and which often took the form of cattle rustling or murders, carried on by gangs of Reivers. Floors also stands opposite the site of Roxburgh Castle, an important medieval fortress where King James II was killed during a siege in 1460.

The lands of Floors were held by the monks of Kelso Abbey, until the Reformation, when they were handed to Robert Ker of Cessford (1570–1650, later the first Earl of Roxburghe) by King James VI.

The country house
John, Earl of Roxburghe (1680–1741) played a role in securing the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, and was rewarded by being created Duke of Roxburghe. He commissioned the Scottish architect William Adam (1689–1748), father of Robert Adam, to design a new mansion incorporating the earlier tower house. It was built between 1721 and 1726, and comprised a plain block, with towers at each corner. Pavilions on either side housed stables and kitchens.

Around 1837, Duke James (1816–1879) commissioned the fashionable architect William Playfair to remodel and rebuild the plain Georgian mansion house he had inherited. The present form of the building is the result of Playfair's work, and is in a similar style to his buildings at Donaldson's College, Edinburgh. In 1903, Duke Henry married the American heiress Mary Goelet. She brought with her from her Long Island home a set of Gobelins Manufactory tapestries, that were incorporated into the ballroom in the 1930s, and added to the collection several modern pictures by Walter Sickert and Henri Matisse, among others.

Floors Castle

Smailholm Tower is a peel tower at Smailholm, around five miles (8 km) west of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Its dramatic situation, atop a crag of Lady Hill, commands wide views over the surrounding countryside. The tower is located at grid reference NT637346, just west of Sandyknowe farm, and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of Historic Scotland. In June 2007 it was awarded the maximum "five-star" status as a tourist attraction from VisitScotland, a rating bestowed on only eight other sites in Scotland.

Smailholm Tower was originally built in the 15th century or early 16th century by the Pringle family. This family, originally spelt Hoppringle, who were followers of the Earl of Douglas, held the lands of Smailholm from the early 15th century, and managed part of Ettrick Forest for their feudal superior. The word -holm stands for little island. And Smail might be Smale, Smail, Smaile, Small, Smalles, Smalls, and Smeal, derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "Smael" meaning "small, slender or thin", and was originally given as a nickname to one of slight stature.

Smailholm Tower was designed, in common with all Scottish peel towers, to provide its occupants with protection from sporadic English raids. The tower was attacked by English soldiers in 1543, 1544 and again in 1546, when the garrison of Wark Castle sacked the tower and carried off prisoners and cattle. The castle was successfully defended against the English in 1640, by Sir Andrew Ker of Greenhead.

Smailholm was obtained by the Scotts of Harden around this time. The Scotts – ancestors of Sir Walter – rebuilt parts of the tower and barmkin. In the 18th century the tower decayed, following the family's move into nearby Sandyknowe. The last owner, the Earl of Ellesmere, handed the property into state care in 1950. It was restored in the 1980s, and now operates as a museum.

The tower
Smailholm was a relatively small tower house, offering around 200 m2 of floorspace, later extended by construction of a hall house and second kitchen within the barmkin, or courtyard.

The rectangular tower is of four storeys, situated on top of a rocky outcrop. The tower is approximately 12.1 m by 9.4 m, with basalt rubble walls 2.4 m thick. The vaulted basement was originally divided into two floors by a wooden éntresol reached by a ladder. The door is on the south side, in a large red sandstone arch, with the turnpike stair in the south-east corner. Above the vault is the hall, with a fireplace to the north featuring a carved human face.

The top floor has an unusual elliptical stone vault which supports a stone flag roof. Parapet walks run along the longer north and south sides, although both are interrupted – the north by a chimney and the south by a window. These upper parts of the tower, including a gunloop in the west gable covering the barmkin, were remodelled in the 17th century.

The tower is surrounded by the remains of a stone barmkin wall, within which the ruins of outbuildings and a small chapel are still visible. The east part of the barmkin once contained a small garden, all of which is now gone. The western barmkin is more intact, with walls up to first floor level around the narrow entrance in the west wall. The courtyard, around 16 m by 19 m, contains the foundations of a single-storey hall house of the 17th century to the north, and a two-roomed kitchen block to the south.

A ditch protects the western approach to the tower, the other three sides being naturally protected by the face of the outcrop. One hundred metres to the southeast, more earthworks mark the presence of a much older settlement, probably dating from the first millennium BC.

Smailholm Tower is now used to display an extensive array of model people illustrating the history of Smailholm and the stories of Walter Scott, a display created by two local artists and employing high-quality embroidery and modelling techniques. From 2006, experiments were conducted on the roof to establish the most suitable damp-proofing method to apply to other such properties, including the planting of turf or mats of sedum plants. As a result of this, a restoration project in 2010/11 reinstated a turf roof over the entire structure.

Sir Walter Scott
The tower provided inspiration to Sir Walter Scott, who visited his paternal grandfather here when still a boy. Scott spent considerable time at the tower during his youth, reportedly for the benefit of his health. Smailholm provides the setting for Scott's ballad The Eve of St John, and also appears in Marmion. As a result of Scott's poetry, his uncle restored the tower, making it safe, around 1800. Turner visited Smailholm with Scott in the author's later years; his sketch of the tower was included in Scott's Poetical Works. Turner's journey with Scott traced scenes from Marmion, and not long after this, the pioneer of photography Fox Talbot repeated Turner's itinerary, publishing what is considered to be the first photographic travelogue or tourist coffee-table book, Sun Pictures in Scotland in homage to both Scott and Turner.

In popular culture
Smailholm Tower was the centerpiece of the children's adventure novel In the Keep of Time by Margaret J. Anderson, in which four English children staying with their aged Aunt Grace travel through time by means of a magical key, first to the time of James II, then to a future after the fall of civilization.