Barnbougle Castle
Barnbougle Castle Details
Barnbougle Castle, privately occupied and much altered C17 tower house of the Mowbrays and Hamiltons
- Closest To: Queensferry, Cramond
- Access: No Access
- Grid Reference: NT169785
Barnbougle Castle is a large mansion house built right on the shoreline of the Firth of Forth within the grounds of the Dalmeny Estate, and is visible from various public footpaths around the estate as well as the shore itself. It is currently available for hire as an exclusive use venue.
On 3rd May 1346 the barony of Barnbougle was held by John de Graham, and his wife the Countess Mary of Menteith. On that date they resigned the barony to King David II, to settle their debt of 2000 merks to the crown, and in 1362, King David granted it Sir Bartholomew de Loen and his heiress wife Philippa de Mowbray. The descendants of this marriage took the name Mowbray, and were the builders of the tower. Philippa was perhaps descended from the Mowbray lords of Dalmeny, who had been forfeited for treason against Robert Bruce in 1320. Roger de Mowbray died in prison prior to his trial, and his corpse was found guilty and beheaded in a rather macabre legal process!
The new Mowbrays quickly allied themselves with the Stewart regime, David the son of Bartholomew and Philippa marrying a daughter of the Duke of Albany, and continued in the male line into the reign of Queen Mary, when Robert Bartoun the son of the Treasurer, had married the heiress daughter Barbara Mowbray, and assumed her name. Their son John was a supporter of Queen Mary, and became an important diplomat to London and Paris after she was captured. John’s grandson was Sir Robert, who died without children in 1675, but by this time Barnbougle had already been sold to Sir Thomas Hamilton, the earl of Melrose.
The tower is generally believed to date from the 17th century, but from a closer examination of images and plans from the mid 19th century, it is perhaps not a coincidence that the part of the castle which survived the disastrous explosion that destroyed a large part of the building constitute an L-plan tower house of a plan, scale , and potentially design consistent with the 16th century. Thomas Hamilton’s grandson sold Barnbougle to Sir Archibald Primrose of Carrington, whose son was the first Earl of Rosebery. The son of the fourth earl elected to built Dalmeny House in 1817, after which the explosion took place, and the castle was left as a ruin until 1881, although the idea had been around for a while. Barnbougle remains part of the Rosebery Estate to this day.