Dundee Castle

Dundee Castle was strategically very important as it protected the trading port of Dundee and represented the interests of the kings of Scots there. The site identified as where the castle once stood is obviously built over and has been for some time, and to be honest, evidence for the precise location is equivocal. However it did lay on an outcrop of rock that stood in the vicinity of St Paul’s Cathedral.

First mentioned in 1290, records of the castle show that a constable was appointed in 1290, that it was returned to John Balliol in 1292, had an English constable again in 1296, and a Scottish one again in 1298. From 1303 it was back in English hands until 1312, and it may have been destroyed after Bannockburn, and only of symbolic importance to the burgh thereafter. By the mid 14th century all records of it had ceased, and although the name “Castlehill” along with one or two other names recall its existence, it was never repaired.

HES Canmore database entry