Hume Castle
Encyclopedia
Hume Castle is the heavily modified remnants of a late 12th or early 13th century "Castle of enceinte
".
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.
, himself a descendant of the Earls of Northumbria
, acquired the lands of Home in the early 13th century, and 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.)
"A Home! A Home!", apparently many of his force thought that he was calling the retreat, and they did indeed go home.
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 Proctector 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 fire power and numbers. Regent Morton gave money to Agnes Gray, Lady Home, in the 1570s to keep the castle garrisoned for James VI of Scotland.
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 one Colonel Fenwick to beset the Earl's Castle with two regiments. Catherine Morrison, the Lady of Wedderburn, paid £6 to bring cannon to defend Hume. Cockburn, the castle's governor engaged in witty repartee with the Roundheads, but refused to deliver the castle. 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 retreated and Fenwick slighted
the fortification.
Cockburn's witty repartee said the 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!
It should be noted that Cockburn and his men were given Quarter for life only (whatever that may mean).
, 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.
. 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.
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 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
Enceinte
Enceinte , is a French term used technically in fortification for the inner ring of fortifications surrounding a town or a concentric castle....
".
The village of Hume
Hume, Scottish Borders
Hume is a village in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. On the B6364, it lies seven miles from Kelso, Roxburghshire. It is close to other villages and amenities, e.g. Brotherstone Hill, Smailholm, Smailholm Tower, Floors Castle, Stichill, Lambden, Nenthorn, Ednam, Birgham and...
is located between Greenlaw
Greenlaw
Greenlaw is a small town situated in the foothills of the Lammermuir Hills on Blackadder Water at the junction of the A697 and the A6105 in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. Greenlaw was first made the county town of Berwickshire in 1596, and was the first town to take on this role since the...
and Kelso, two miles north of the village of Stichill
Stichill
Stichill is a village and civil parish in the historic county of Roxburghshire, a division of the Scottish Borders. Situated north of the Burgh of Kelso, Stichill lies north of the Eden Water and from the English Border at Coldstream....
, in Berwickshire
Berwickshire
Berwickshire or the County of Berwick is a registration county, a committee area of the Scottish Borders Council, and a lieutenancy area of Scotland, on the border with England. The town after which it is named—Berwick-upon-Tweed—was lost by Scotland to England in 1482...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. (OS ref.- NT704413). It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...
, recorded as such by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government 'sponsored' [financed and with oversight] through Historic Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government...
(RCAHMS).
Standing as it does, on an impressive height above its eponymous castleton
Castle town
A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns are common in Medieval Europe. Good example include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles...
, it commands fine prospects across the Merse, with views to the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
border at Carter Bar
Carter Bar
The Carter Bar is the point at which the A68 crosses the England-Scotland border and forms a pass located at the top of Redesdale in the Cheviot Hills at an altitude of . The first sizeable Scottish town is Jedburgh approximately north. Other nearby Scottish towns include Hawick away and Kelso...
. It had historically been used as a beacon
Beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of...
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, grandson of Waltheof, Earl of DunbarWaltheof, Earl of Dunbar
Waltheof , Earl of Lothian or "Dunbar" and lord of Beanley, was a 12th century Anglo-Scottish noble. He was the eldest son of Gospatric III, Earl of Lothian by his Scottish wife Deirdre....
, himself a descendant of the Earls of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The earldom of Northumbria was the successor of the ealdormanry of Bamburgh, itself the successor of an independent Bernicia. Under the Norse kingdom of York, there were earls of...
, acquired the lands of Home in the early 13th century, and 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
James II of Scotland
James II reigned as King of Scots from 1437 to his death.He was the son of James I, King of Scots, and Joan Beaufort...
stayed at Home en route to the siege of Roxburgh Castle
Roxburgh Castle
Roxburgh Castle was a castle sited near Kelso, in the Borders region of Scotland, in the former Roxburghshire.-History:The castle was founded by King David I. In 1174 it was surrendered to England after the capture of William I at Alnwick, and was often in English hands thereafter. The Scots made...
, the last English garrison left in Scotland following the Wars of Independence
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....
. (James was killed by an early Bombard
Bombard (weapon)
A bombard is a large-caliber, muzzle-loading medieval cannon or mortar, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls. The name bombarde was first noted and sketched in a French historical text around 1380. The modern term bombardment derives from this.Bombards were usually used during...
during the siege.)
Home or Hume?
The change of the central vowel of the family name, "Home" to "Hume", is amusingly thought to have occurred during the disastrous Battle of Flodden in 1513. Alexander, 3rd Lord Home led his troops into the fray with his battle cryBattle cry
A battle cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same military unit.Battle cries are not necessarily articulate, although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious sentiment....
"A Home! A Home!", apparently many of his force thought that he was calling the retreat, and they did indeed go home.
Sixteenth century and the Rough Wooing
In August 1515 Regent AlbanyRegent Albany
Regent Albany can refer to several Dukes of Albany who served as regent of the Kingdom of Scotland:*Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany *Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany *John Stewart, 2nd Duke of 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
Regent Albany
Regent Albany can refer to several Dukes of Albany who served as regent of the Kingdom of Scotland:*Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany *Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany *John Stewart, 2nd Duke of 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
Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home
Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home His mother was Nicholace Ker, a daughter of George Ker of Samuelston, his father the 2nd Lord Home. Alexander Home was found guilty of treason in 1516 and executed....
, Lord Chamberlain
Chamberlain of Scotland
Holders of the office of Lord Chamberlain of Scotland are known from about 1124.It was ranked by King Malcolm as the third great Officer of State, called Camerarius Domini Regis, and had a salary of £200 per annum alloted to him...
, 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
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, Hume castle was considered almost impregnable. However, in 1547 it was captured, during the "Rough Wooing", by the Lord Proctector Somerset. Regent Arran had sent 12 gunners
Arquebus
The arquebus , or "hook tube", is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. The word was originally modeled on the German hakenbüchse; this produced haquebute...
to man the castle in August 1547. George Home, 4th Lord Home
George Home, 4th Lord Home
George Home, 4th Lord Home was a Scottish nobleman. The son of Alexander Home, 2nd Lord Home and his wife Nicola Ker, daughter of George Ker of Samuelston, he succeeded his brother, Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home, when he died on October 8, 1516....
, was injured at the Battle of Pinkie and his son Alexander captured, After stout resistance by Mariotta (or Marion) Haliburton
Mariotta Haliburton
Mariotta Haliburton, Lady Home, was a 16th-century Scottish noblewoman. She varied the spelling of her forename between Mariotta, Marion, and Mary. She is remembered for her defence and negotiation of the surrender of the Castle of Hume after the Battle of Pinkie.Mariotta was the daughter of...
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
Lake of the Hirsel
The Lake of the Hirsel or Hirsel Lake is an artificial body of water near Coldstream in Berwickshire in Scotland. It is set in the grounds of The Hirsel, home of the Home family and of the late Sir Alec Douglas-Home.It covers around...
. Although English artillery was placed to commence bombardment, no shot was fired by either side. Somerset Herald
Somerset Herald
Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary is an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. In the year 1448 Somerset Herald is known to have served the Duke of Somerset, but by the time of the coronation of King Henry VII in 1485 his successor appears to have been raised to the rank of a royal...
conveyed Lady Home's instructions to the reluctant garrison who would have preferred Lord Home's word. Sir Edward Sutton
Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley
Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley was an English nobleman and soldier. Contemporary sources also refer to him as Sir Edward Dudley.-Life:...
, described as a cousin of the Earl of Warwick
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death...
, was made Captain of Hume, and received the keys from Andrew Home, Commendator of Jedburgh and Restennet
Abbot of Jedburgh
The Abbot of Jedburgh was the head of the Augustinian canons of Jedburgh Abbey, Roxburghshire. It was founded by King David I of Scotland in 1138, and David's grandson and successor Máel Coluim IV ensured its promotion to the status of abbey before 1156...
, on Thursday 22 September 1547. There were seventy-eight Scots within, and Edward Sutton found guns including; 2 batard culverins
Culverin
A culverin was a relatively simple ancestor of the musket, and later a medieval cannon, adapted for use by the French in the 15th century, and later adapted for naval use by the English in the late 16th century. The culverin was used to bombard targets from a distance. The weapon had a...
; a saker
Saker (cannon)
The saker was a medium cannon slightly smaller than a culverin developed during the early 16th century and often used by the English. It was named after the Saker Falcon, a large falconry bird native to the Middle East....
; 3 brass falconets
Falconet (cannon)
The falconet or falcon was a light cannon developed in the late 15th century. During the Middle Ages guns were decorated with engravings of reptiles, birds or beasts depending on their size. For example, a culverin would often feature snakes, as the handles on the early cannons were often decorated...
; and eight other iron guns. More guns were brought to hold the castle, and an English inventory of 31 December 1547
Inventory of Henry VIII of England
The Inventory of Henry VIII of England compiled in 1547 is a list of the possessions of the crown, now in the British Library as Harley Ms. 1419....
lists 21 cannons including 4 fowlers
Veuglaire
The Veuglaire was a wrought iron cannon, and part of the artillery of France in the Middle Ages...
, and 40 hand-guns
Arquebus
The arquebus , or "hook tube", is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. The word was originally modeled on the German hakenbüchse; this produced haquebute...
. 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
Roxburgh
Roxburgh , also known as Rosbroch, is a village, civil parish and now-destroyed royal burgh. It was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland...
too far away.
Mariotta, Lady Home, complained to Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, KG, Earl Marshal was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549....
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
Warkworth Castle
Warkworth Castle is a ruined medieval building in the town of the same name in the English county of Northumberland. The town and castle occupy a loop of the River Coquet, less than a mile from England's north-east coast...
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
William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton
William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton KG, was an English baron and military commander serving in France in the 1540s and 1550s, and in the Scottish wars of the 1540s.He was the thirteenth Baron Grey de Wilton....
planned to hang six of them, but the two leaders escaped into Scotland.
After the death of his father, captive in the Tower
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, Alexander, the young 5th Lord Home
Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home
Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home was the son of George Home, 4th Lord Home and Mariotta Haliburton. He became Lord Home on the death of his father who was injured in a skirmish with the English two days before the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh.-Marriages:...
, 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
Jean de Beaugué
Jean de Beaugué, was a French soldier who served in Scotland in the 1540s during the war of the Rough Wooing. He wrote a memoir of the fighting which, first published in 1556, is still an important source for historians...
, 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
Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury
Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury, 5th Earl of Waterford, 11th Baron Talbot KG was the son of George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury and Anne Hastings....
was asked to organise his release by the exchange of French hostages.
Mariotta, Lady Home, sent the news to Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise was a queen consort of Scotland as the second spouse of King James V. She was the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and served as regent of Scotland in her daughter's name from 1554 to 1560...
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
Thirlestane Castle
Thirlestane Castle is a castle set in extensive parklands near Lauder in the Borders of Scotland. The site is aptly named Castle Hill, as it stands upon raised ground. However, the raised land is within Lauderdale, the valley of the Leader Water. The land has been in the ownership of the Maitland...
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
Eyemouth
Eyemouth , historically spelt Aymouth, is a small town and civil parish in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is east of the main north-south A1 road and just north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. It has a population of circa 3,420 people .The town's name comes from its location at...
. The castle was again besieged in 1569 by the Earl of Sussex
Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex
Thomas Radclyffe 3rd Earl of Sussex was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland during the Tudor period of English history, and a leading courtier during the reign of Elizabeth I.- Family:...
during his raid into Scotland. The defenders capitulated within twelve hours, in awe of his vastly superior fire power and numbers. Regent Morton gave money to Agnes Gray, Lady Home, in the 1570s to keep the castle garrisoned for James VI of Scotland.
Downfall
The castle finally succumbed to the forces of CromwellOliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in 1650 during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...
. James, 3rd Earl of Home was a prominent member of the Kirk Party
Kirk Party
The Kirk Party were a radical Presbyterian faction of the Scottish Covenanters during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They came to the fore after the defeat of the Engagers faction in 1648 at the hands of Oliver Cromwell and the English Parliament...
, and after Cromwell's successful investiture of Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
, he sent one Colonel Fenwick to beset the Earl's Castle with two regiments. Catherine Morrison, the Lady of Wedderburn, paid £6 to bring cannon to defend Hume. Cockburn, the castle's governor engaged in witty repartee with the Roundheads, but refused to deliver the castle. 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 retreated and Fenwick slighted
Slighting
A slighting is the deliberate destruction, partial or complete, of a fortification without opposition. During the English Civil War this was to render it unusable as a fort.-Middle Ages:...
the fortification.
Cockburn's witty repartee said the 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!
It should be noted that Cockburn and his men were given Quarter for life only (whatever that may mean).
Resurrection
In the early 18th century, Hume and its environs came into the possession of the Earls of MarchmontLord Polwarth
Lord Polwarth, of Polwarth in the County of Berwick, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1690 for Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, 2nd Baronet, Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1696 to 1702...
, 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
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
, from the waste left from its destruction, on the original foundations of its curtain wall
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....
. 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 WarsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. 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
Dirrington Great Law
Dirrington Great Law is a hill in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the former county of Berwickshire. The summit is around south of Longformacus and west of Duns. It is an isolated hill to the south of the Lammermuir Plateau...
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
Scottish Office
The Scottish Office was a department of the United Kingdom Government from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland...
. It re-opened to the public in 1992.
In 2006 The Society handed over the castle to a charitable trust run by the Clan Home Association, under the auspices of Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...
, to maintain its preservation in the future
See also
- List of places in the Scottish Borders
- List of places in East Lothian
- List of places in Midlothian
- List of places in West Lothian