Dunglass Castle Cockburnspath

Dunglass Castle was a large 16th century tower house built for the Home family, and demolished in the 1950s. There are no visible remains of the castle, although the collegiate church (pictured) is an interesting place to visit.

The area is of strategic significance, being one of the glens that block access to invading armies along the east coast of Scotland. However there are no particular defences that survive here such as ditches that might indicate how the tower was defended, so it has to be questioned whether it was in fact somewhere else on the estate, such as the artillery fort on the hilltop just upstream, the river promontory site further upstream opposite Gowdie’s Welll, or even the coastal promontory by the Old Bridge. The castle had an eventful history. It is possible that the tower was founded by the first Lord Home in the mid 15th century, but destruction events in 1532, 1547, 1550 and 1640 undoubtedly wrought significant damage. The Homes sold Dunglass in 1680, and the house was in poor condition by 1773. In 1807 a new mansion-style property was built, suffering its own destruction event – a disastrous fire in 1947, which resulted in its demolition. An engraving held by National Galleries Scotland however, suggests that the earlier destruction and remodelling may not have resulted in the removal of the tower, which may be represented on the right hand side of the picture.

HES Canmore database entry

National Galleries Scotland engraving