Edrington - Edrington Castle

Edrington Castle

Tytler states that during the crisis of 1481 the Border barons and those whose estates lay near the sea were commanded to put into a posture of defence their various castles, one of which was Edrington. In July 1482, Edrington Castle was taken and burnt by Richard (the future King Richard III), Duke of Gloucester’s army but was soon afterwards rebuilt and fortified by order (and presumably paid for) of the Scottish Parliament.

Pitcairn records on 7 April 1529, a "remission to Robert Lauder of The Bass and eleven others for treasonably intercommuning, resetting and assisting Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus (who had been forfeited), George Douglas, his brother, and Archibald, their uncle" whom Lauder had given refuge to in his castle of Edrington. The Douglases went into exile across the border.

About 1546 Edrington Castle was again captured by the English and in that year the Scots demanded that "their house of Edrington" should be immediately restored to them; and in accordance with a Treaty concluded in the church at Norham, Edward VI vacated it.

Edrington Castle as a residence, it would appear, was eventually superseded by the Pele Tower at Nether Mordington, today Edrington House, probably when it was rebuilt about 1750. . The Parish of Mordington says of Edrington castle that "at the close of the eighteenth century the tower and battlements were substantially intact"; and H.Drummond Gauld (Brave Borderland, London 1934) states "towards the close of the 18th century Edrington Castle was still four storeys in height, a commanding ruin perched on the pinnacle of a crag clothed with trees. On the western side the castle was inaccessible and was well adapted to stem the torrent on incursion from the English shores of the Tweed." James Logan Mack too said that "after the Union it was suffered to fall into decay." The Old Statistical Account of Scotland (vol.15. c1795) mentions "Edrington Castle, ruins, demands our notice."

One hundred years on, the Ordnance Gazetteer (Edinburgh 1885) was still referring to Edrington castle as "a ruined fortalice". But The Castellated & Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the 12th to the 18th Century, (vol.IV, Edinburgh, 1892) says that it was by then "a mere fragment of an ancient castle; a place of some importance in the Border wars." By 1892, the year of publication of the abovementioned architectural survey, Mr.Edward Grey, the new owner, had completed a new country house nearby called Cawderstanes, with some cottages also adjoining the castle incorporating parts of it. Almost certainly his builders have been responsible for quarrying the stone from the castle for the big house.

By 1909, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bt., notes: "Edrington Castle, opposite Paxton, once a place of great strength and importance, has been quarried away to near ground level." The Sixth Report & Inventory of Monuments & Constructions in the County of Berwick (HMSO, Edinburgh, 1915,) states "this castle is situated about three and a half miles west of Berwick, on a rocky bank above the Whitadder. A mere fragment remains, adjoining and incorporated in the farm buildings." Mr. Drummond Gauld (1934) laments that the castle "has suffered more from the attentions of local vandals than it ever did from the English."