Damages

June 18, 1941:  Bren Carriers at Ring of Brodgar

It seems inconceivable to us now...war games in the Neolithic ruins of the Ring of Brodgar.  But the 9th (Donside) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders were maneuvering in Orkney--trying to close the training gap that saw Germany's experienced army seize most of Europe in the face of poorly trained opposing forces in the early days of World War Two.  

April 21, 2022:  Invergordon murals from the train

On June 18, 1941 (when the photo of Bren Carriers was taken) a real war was underway.  So an indulgence is merited in the protection of cultural heritage sites perhaps.  It was the least of their troubles. And how much damage the site sustained is subject to dispute.  Some of the tracks are still evident.

April 12, 2022:  Neolithic Ring of Brodgar

The Donside Battalion had sailed from Aberdeen for the Orkneys on September 2, 1940, the first year into the war.  The British were certainly under duress, having to hastily develop defense lines and organize called-up divisions in anticipation of a full scale invasion.  The 9th would garrison in defense of the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow and Hatston Airfield about a mile northeast of Kirkwall--until October 11, 1941.   

April 23, 2022:  Invergordon murals from the train

Then in October, the 9th Battalion redeployed, arriving first at Alnwick to join the 216th Independent Infantry Brigade, ultimately being destined for India in January 1942.  On May 27th, 1942, it embarked from Glasgow, and was at-sea when it was re-designated the 116th Royal Armored Regiment, landing in Bombay July 27th, 1942.  Thus began several years of hard fighting in the Burma theater. 

On 14 August 1945, news was received that the war with Japan was over.  Official surrender of Japanese forces, however, was not received until September 12, which meant the Gordon Highlanders would be the last armored regiment to come out of action.  It was the last British armored unit to be engaged by enemy forces and, at the end of the war, the British regiment furthest from home. 

April 12, 2022:  Neolithic Ring of Brodgar

The 9th Highland Division's motto, ‘Bydand,’ is a Scottish word meaning ‘steadfast’.  Additionally, the 9th Battalion held the motto: ‘Laro Aur Larte Raho’--meaning ‘To Strike And Strike Again’ in the Urdu language.  (The 116th, armored with Shermans, was assigned to the 255th Indian Tank Brigade.)

Hatson airfield, incidentally, was the first with hard runways built in Britain, the first built on Mainland Orkney in the prelude to war and, given that construction began just prior to the war, it was also fully operational by the time war broke out in September 1939. The first aircraft to try out the tarmac landed on August 25, 1939--literally a matter of days before WWII began in earnest.

April 12, 2022:  Neolithic Ring of Brodgar

 

 

Another layer of faith

In the Borders it is customary for visitors to view its magnificent Abbeys--Kelso, Melrose, Dryburgh and Jedburgh. And they are impressive.  But there is also another layer of faith, if you will, throughout the Borders that is represented by the local church, or kirk.  The local parish.  

April 2, 2023:  St. Aidan's Church, Bamburgh

Take for example, St. Aidan's Church at Bamburgh, the Anglo-Saxon seat of power where Northumbrian kings are said to have been crowned.  The story of St. Aidan merits a few comments. 

April 2, 2023: Interior of St. Aidan's Church

In translation, Aedán, or Aodhán, means "little fiery one".  An Irish missionary,  Aidan is credited with converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity--preaching to both nobility and slave.  

More is known about Aidan's death (August 31, 651) than about his early years (born about 590).  He essentially enters history's pages from the Holy Isle of Iona (which was established by St. Columba about 563 AD).  

A bishop named Cormán was originally dispatched to the Scots, but his harsh methods at conversion left much to be desired.  [In deference to Cormán, it must be said that he had a significant impact on evangelizing the people of Northumbria.  He laid the groundwork in other words.] 

In any case, Aidan was sent from Iona in Cormán's stead and Aidan, not Cormán, is now considered the Apostle of Northumbria.  Aidan went on to found the priory on the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne with its access to the kings of Northumbria at Castle Bamburgh...until the coming of the Vikings.

April 2, 2023:  Aidan's Tomb

Interestingly, Aidan was a social reformer, in front of his time.  Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (Book III: Chapter V) states:  "whatsoever gifts of money he received from the rich, he either distributed them, as has been said, to the use of the poor, or bestowed them in ransoming such as had been wrongfully sold for slaves."  He evangelized against slavery and bondage, apparently taking it as his mission.

Aidan's tomb is found in Bamburgh's church.  But what exactly is entombed is disputed. 

After his death, Aidan's body was first buried at Lindisfarne, in the abbey he helped found.  Apparently, his remains were disturbed and broken up following the defeat of the ‘Irish’ faction at the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD, when Roman Catholicism became dominate at the expense of the Celtic Church.  In the 11th century, Glastonbury monks supposedly also obtained relics of Aidan--again partitioning his remains.  In fact, various locations today claim relics of his partitioned body.  He was not, in a word, at rest. 

April 2, 2023:  Aidan's Tomb at Bamburgh Church

In 2013, an elaborate tomb was built within Bamburgh's church.  It was dedicated by the Archbishop of York, presumably to finally put what remained of Aidan's remains at rest...or to memorialize them anyhow.  The tomb says:  "Quies Aidani" (Aidan at Peace).  A small window is inscribed:  “Not far from here, Aidan first Bishop of Lindisfarne, fell asleep in Christ.” 

April 2, 2023:  St. Aidan's Church, Bamburgh

March 27, 2017:  Holy Cross, Haltwhistle

One last comment regarding Aidan.  He was esteemed by the Scots.  Thus, local lore has it, in the border raids on Haltwhistle in the 1500s, the Holy Cross Church (dedicated to St. Aidan; dates 13th century) was unmolested whereas much of the town was burnt.  At an even earlier date, the church was immune when William Wallace was marauding the countryside in 1297 and 1298...though that may have to do with the fact that it belonged to a royal Scottish abbey...and the king would be sore displeased if it was harmed.   

Eden's Lawn, taken from the Celtic 'Llan Aidan,' is allegedly where Aidan ministered.  Ultimately, Holy Cross Church sprang from there.    

March 27, 2017:  Edens Lawn, Haltwhistle

Whether Aidan was the first to evangelize Northumbria is also debatable.  Aidan and his monks slowly restored Christianity to the Northumbrian countryside, so perhaps he should be considered more a revivalist in a way because, as far as is known, St. Ninian (himself a shadowy figure given a lack of written records) is to be credited with being Scotland's first saint. 

April 2, 2023:  Stained glass, St. Adian's

It is said that in 397 AD Ninian, a Briton, began his ministry to Scotland, predating St. Patrick by more than 30 years.  Ninian evangelized the southern Picts from his church at Whithorn on Burrow Head, Galloway, where St. Ninian had a white-washed stone church built; hence the name.  According to archeologists, it has "an atmosphere of spiritual antiquity" to it.

Ninian was born about 360 AD, died and was buried at Whithorn in Galloway at the age of 72 in 432 AD at the time St. Patrick began his ministry.  Here it is of interest that Patrick, in an epistle to Coroticus in which he condemned Coroticus for slavery, termed the Picts as "apostates"--meaning they had abandoned Christianity at some point in the early fifth century before being called back to the faith.  St. Ninian's initial efforts apparently were somewhat temporary.

Ninian is said to have evangelized his way up west Scotland's coast, possibly as far north as the Shetlands. However, Christianity at Whithorn was older than Ninian.  How much older is unknown, but it is probable that his appointment as bishop was in response to an organized local British community that was already established as a center of trade and power, within the sphere of Roman Carlisle. 

April 2, 2023: Veteran's memorial at Bamburgh Castle

In the statement of significance (Historic Environment Scotland), Whithorn is "rightly styled" as the Cradle of Christianity in Scotland and Northumbria--a veritable school for saints at the beginning of evangelization.  Archeologists have identified the remains of a Christian community at Whithorn, as well as a monument (the Latinus Stone--oldest known Christian memorial in Scotland) dating to the mid-5th century. In its earliest days before Whithorn was a priory, it apparently was a Christian site of some sort.  It has been suggested that it could have been a ceremonial meeting place for feasts, as archeologists found rare imported wine, exotic herbs and spices from Loire, France and numerous shards of fine colored glass drinking vessels, suggesting a Romanized Briton Christian secular settlement before Rome abandoned Britain in about 420 AD.  

April 2, 2023:  Weathered gravestone, St. Aidan's churchyard

Whithorn is on our visit wish list.  It has drawn many pilgrims through time, including King James IV of Scotland who annually visited the shrine until his death at Flodden Field; but also Robert Bruce (1329--to cure his leprosy), James V and Mary Queen of Scots (1563).  Today it is a part of the Whithorn Way, a 143 mile pilgrimage trail from Glasgow Cathedral to Whithorn.  Since at least the 600s...and counting...it has been a site of pilgrimage.  It is old.

April 2. 2023:  St. Aidan's

St. Ninian's shrine at Whithorn and St. Aiden's in Bamburgh are only two examples of the many layers of faith that can be found in Scotland.  You need not look far.  It is ever-present.  It is, in its way, the principle reason we continue to go back. 

April 2, 2023:  Bamburgh Castle, Northumbria

 

 

Lions House allotments

April 1, 2023--Lions House

Walking Berwick's Elizabethan walls, we came upon the Georgian mansion, Lions House c. 1807-1809.  Prominently placed in the Elizabethan fortifications (it is the highest ground in Berwick),  Lions House is a Grade II* listed property that has been restored. 

April 1, 2023--One of the lions

An "icon of the Berwick skyline" according to the Berwick Civic Society, the three story Lions House (or four if coming in from the rear) is a free standing neighbor of the Gunpowder Magazine.  It affords a wide ranging view of Tweed Estuary, and really the whole way down the Northumbrian Coast toward Lindisfarne.  The house is guarded by two 17th century Venetian lions at its front entrance, which give the name to the place.

April 1, 2023--Steel door to Gunpowder Magazine

 

April 1, 2023--Tweedmouth from the Walls

The renovated Georgian house is a holiday let, a self-catered accommodation (three bedrooms let out) at a relatively trendy £1435 pounds for a three night stay.  We pass along the link, if anyone is interested.  Currently managed by Crabtree & Crabtree: (https://www.crabtreeandcrabtree.com/properties/lions-house/).  For ourselves, accommodations at the newly opened Premier Inn were fine enough, and the Premier Inn was right next to the Walls at Sandgate anyhow.  

A note about listed properties in the UK.  Grade II* listed buildings are buildings of particular importance, or with a more-than-special interest.  Which means:  it may not be demolished, extended, or altered without permission from the local planning authority.  So, a preservation property essentially.

Not to wade too deep into ongoing urban planning disputes in the UK, but it is somewhat a stretch to claim that developers are unable to develop at all--and thus there should be fewer listed buildings.  In their entirety, listed buildings only comprise about 2% of British building stock, and they do reflect the architectural heritage of the UK.

April 1, 2023--The lions

If I had a voice in the ongoing arguments, it would be to err on the side of conservation.  After all, once it's gone, it's gone.  Now it is true, as far as Georgian buildings go, they're something of a dime a dozen in the UK--to risk being flippant.  They are not, in themselves, especially rare.  What makes Lions House specially interesting is that, as far as I can determine, it is remotely linked to L.S. Lowry, the acclaimed English painter from Manchester.  Remotely.  Or rather, tenuously.

April 1, 2023--Lions House

Often vacationing in Berwick, and smitten by the Lions House Georgian charms, Lowry considered buying Lions House in 1947.  He was dissuaded from doing so by an architect report of the house's alleged dampness.  Lowry was himself quite a character--an only child, a tyrannical mother, never married, never had a girlfriend...but had a strange relationship with an underage girl who grew up and to whom he bequeathed everything, including his paintings.  Another story for another time.

By 1971, Lions House stood neglected.  And consideration was given toward demolishing it.  Then it had a reprieve.  First, it was listed, and in 1972 (though some say 1976), Colonel JIM Smail stepped in and purchased the property.  In 1977 he presented it to the Berwick upon Tweed Preservation Trust which Smail chaired for 23 years, before passing in 1995.

April 1, 2023--One of the lions

Smail was a well known figure in the Borders for industrial development, but also for developing tourism and for his environmentalism.  But basically, the Smail family were newspapermen.  In 1947 (the same year L.S. Lowry considered buying Lions House), Smail inherited a small group of Borders newspapers called the "Tweeddale Trio"--namely, Berwick Advertiser, Berwickshire Advertiser and Kelso Chronicle.  In 1950, Smail bought the Southern Reporter and formed the Tweedsdale Press Group which was sold in 1999 to Johnston Press, and finally liquidated in 2020...victim of the economic and demographic times.  Lost to COVID we'll call it. 

April 1, 2023--The other one

On the lions, there are two "identical" (they really aren't, but hey) snarling recumbent stone lions with curled tails. They are flat at the back, which suggests they were once attached to the walls of a building.  The Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A--world's largest museum of applied arts) identified them as likely being seventeenth-century Venetian.

For our interests, though, we were fascinated by the Lions House Allotments.  Allotments are a curious social construct mostly practiced in the UK, where gardening is a national pass time.  They take gardening seriously.

April 1, 2023--The allotments at Lions House

Ignoring serfs, crofters and tenancies from earlier ages, modern allotments can be traced to the industrial revolution in the 18th century.  As an inducement, workers in towns and cities across the country might be given a smallholding as part of their wages on which to grow their own food.  Keeping an allotment is now governed by "The Allotments Act 1922" and its subsequent revisions.  

The Act forms the basis of the rules of the Lions House Allotments Association, a private charity, which is overseen by the Town Council.  In addition to the Lions House Allotments, Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council now manages allotments at Five Arches Recreation Ground, Blakewell Gardens, and those adjacent to the former Kelso railway line. 

In 2019, an architectural firm was approached by a private client to restore Lions House, which they recently purchased in the private market as the Berwick upon Tweed Preservation Trust sought to rationalize its holdings.  It had fallen into disrepair despite the earlier intervention of the Berwick Preservation Trust in the 1970s.  

The Allotments Association, which formed in 2018, helped open the door for the Preservation Trust.  The site was separated--Lions House and Lions House Allotments.  And the Association bought the Lions House Allotments site, comprised of 52 allotments.  

April 1, 2023--The allotments

Ownership of allotments was not really the purpose of the Preservation Trust.  Ensuring that the land was preserved as allotments, however, was.  So, through a clause in the sale contract that the site would remain in use as allotment gardens in perpetuity, the Trust was able to sell the allotments to this new charity.  And everyone went home happy.

Rent by the way is set by the plot size.  But it is very affordable.  A majority pay under £30 per year, plus all have agreed to pay a supplement to accumulate a maintenance pot for the future.  It is little wonder, therefore, that the waiting list for an allotment is longer than several lifetimes. 

April 1, 2023--The allotments

Queen Mary's bathouse?

April 13, 2023--Queen Mary's Bath

In Edinburgh stands an edifice long abandoned to the doves and pigeons.  Namely, Queen Mary's Bath.  As buildings go, it is still mostly intact, albeit an odd looking place.  And as with most everything else in Scotland, a copious amount of uncertainty exists on whether it was or wasn't a bath house.

According to the popular lore of the town folk--since like forever (or "of considerable antiquity" that may be called) --the unusual medieval building at Holyrood has long been associated with Queen Mary.  Specifically, they say, it was her bath...but not just any bath.  For it has also been rumored that Queen Mary of Scots did not bathe in mere water; but rather in sweet white wine, which she believed was good for her complexion.  

Until, that is, John Pinkerton, Scottish antiquarian, came along and felt the need for further embellishment.  In 1776 (about 200 years after Queen Mary's beheading by Elizabeth I) Pinkerton added to the tale.  

The bathing waters were further transformed to champagne...a conversion of water to wine more or less on par with the Wedding at Cana perhaps.  Per Pinkerton:  "The chamber, where the Queen, whose charms divine, Made wond’ring nations own the pow’r of love, Oft bathed her snowy limbs in sparkling wine, Now proves a lonely refuge for the dove.” 

Pinkerton's embellishment does indicate that Queen Mary's Bath was no longer in use at least as late as the American Revolution.  Pinkerton, incidentally, was not only an antiquarian.  He was also a master cartographer, a historian, author, numismatist, and sadly...he was an early advocate of Germanic racial supremacy.  His ideological views were, how shall we say, slightly bent?  

April 23, 2023--Pictish stone

Pinkerton's correspondence, particularly with fellow academics, is characterized by verbal abuse...rantings that imitate one of our more modern pontificating presidential candidates.  Proving the axiom that the more things change the more they remain the same. 

At any rate, in two works--Dissertation on the Origins and Progress of the Scythians or Goths (1787) and Enquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the reign of Malcolm III (1789)--Pinkerton theorized that the Picts were a race of ancient Goths.  He also suggested that England was of superior racial stock than Ireland and Wales.  Or, as Pinkerton put it, "What a lion is to an ass, such is a Goth to a Celt." 

He wanted to purge his country's history of all things Celt; to rid the modern world of "Celtomania" using what he perceived to be the racial superiority of the Picts--who are largely a mythic enigmatic people.  Yes, there's archeological evidence of them--a stray stone here or there--that proves their existence, but scant little besides.  And that opened the doorway for a charlatan like Pinkerton.  He used the Picts much in the same way that Hitler did with his so-called Aryans a century and a half later.  

In keeping with the times, though, Pinkerton's racist ideology lent support to continuing (indeed accelerating) the Highland Clearances which are now widely accepted as being the acts of a systematic genocide...the great replacement theory, perversely enough.  Lastly, Pinkerton was known to embellish...to the point of creative forgeries.  He ultimately was called out by the selfsame academians that he violently attacked, and died impoverished in France somewhere after selling his estate.  We'll leave it at that. 

April 13, 2023--the Bath

Back to Edinburgh.  As to archeological and bibliographical evidence, Queen Mary's Bath was built in or about 1565, which happens to fall within two years give or take of her being deposed.  So, the bath was indeed built when Queen Mary was still in power in Scotland.  Bibliographically, the bath does not appear in a map of Edinburgh in 1544.  So likely it was built sometime after that.  Of course, that's somewhat like Carl Sagan's famous observation:  "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."  

Nor does the bath appear in Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland published in 1577 (attributed to Rowland Johnson) when it should have been if one is consistent.  In 1647, about 80 years after its construction, however, the bath is illustrated in Gordon of Rothiemay's pictorial map of Edinburgh.  And more particularly it is shown in a survey of 1671, standing just beyond the corner of the King's Privy Garden, its entrance being about 20 yards from the "caichepelle"--or tennis court. 

Okay.  So what was it?  

Ignoring bathing in wine of course, some accounts have it as being a tennis pavilion.  If so, this would make it the oldest tennis pavilion in the world.  And they do have their arguments. Others say it was a dovecot all along...which stretches things a bit.  Still others have the bath as being a summer house, or a garden pavilion for the then newly created North privy gardens on the grounds of the palace at Holyroodhouse.  Some say it was the house of the watchman over the royal gardens.  Dubious, but hey.

April 13, 2023--Queen Mary's Bath jutting out in the pavement from city tour bus

April 13, 2023--Holyrood

And some (ever inclining their ear toward salacious gossip) say it was an intimate banquet house.  They too have their arguments.  Adding to the mystery, in 1852 the bath was reconditioned.  For a time, it became quite a tourist attraction.  In this restoration work, a richly-inlaid dagger was found, hidden in the boarding of the bath's roof; its whereabouts now are not known to this author. 

Far be it from me to repeat such lascivious details, but this dagger was rumored to have been used in the infamous murder of David Rizzio, Queen Mary's private secretary who was stabbed 56 or 57 times in Queen Mary's private bedchambers.  At some point you stop counting. 

Rizzio, an ambitious Italian, is rumored to have impregnated Mary with James VI (of Scotland)/James I (of England).  There are certainly some questions.  Lord Darnley, the King consort, ultimately grew jealous of their friendship.  For his part, Rizzio was apparently not particular.  Early on, he "insinuated himself in the favors of Lord Darnley so far," according to David Calderwood  (Scottish Presbyterian minister at Jedburgh, c. 1575-October 29, 1650) "that they would lie some times in one bed together."

Apparently in his other pursuits, Rizzio was discovered hiding in the closet of Queen Mary's bedchamber in the middle of the night dressed only in a fur gown over his shirt (at least according to a report by a French diplomat to the court at the time).  So Lord Darnley set a course of revenge.  

13 Apr 23--Rizzio's purported grave

On March 9, 1566, Mary was having dinner with Rizzio and a few ladies-in-waiting.  Darnley intruded, accused his wife of adultery, and then had a posse of nobles murder Rizzio.  At first, Rizzio tried to hide behind Queen Mary who was then six months pregnant with James VI/James I.  He was seized after one of the intruders (alleged by Queen Mary afterwards) held a gun at her pregnant belly.  Another threatened to stab her.  

And after a violent struggle, Rizzio was stabbed 56 (or 57) times.  He was dragged through the bedchamber into the adjacent Audience Room, after which, his body was thrown down the main staircase and stripped of his jewels and fine clothes.  In all, there were 15 conspirators involved in Rizzio's murder, and two clergy--one of whom may have been none other than John Knox, depending on who you ask.  

Rizzio was buried that same night in an unmarked grave in the grounds of Holyrood Abbey.  Widely circulated rumors also have it that Queen Mary had his body interred at her father's tomb, which did her case little good. Some say Rizzio (or Riccio) was re-buried at Canongate Kirk...a doubtful claim as the Kirk had not yet been built. 

April 13, 2023--Knox House

Just over a year later, in April 1567, Darnley would himself be murdered unceremoniously, some say with Queen Mary's assistance.  Technically, she was thought to be an accessory to regicide.  And it was this that led her to seek safe haven with her cousin--Queen Elizabeth I of England.   

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.  For her alleged role in the conspiracy against Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots was executed in February 1587. The rest is history.

So, what was it?  The reality is, no one knows for sure.  If I had to hazard a guess, I'd go with a tennis pavilion as most likely.  But it does have quite a story line associated with it.  

If it weren't true, it'd be a thing of fiction. 

The most dangerous place in Scotland

Norham Castle.  Queen of Border Fortresses.  The mighty English stronghold on a rocky outcrop on the south bank of the River Tweed...with Scotland on the other bank.  Even today its ruin is formidable.  

April 5, 2023--Grave of Sir Walter Scott, Dryburgh Abbey

Norham was claimed (by Sir Walter Scott) to have been "the most dangerous place in England," or rather at least as far as Scott's epic poem Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field goes.  There's some truth to Scott's hyperbole--Norham was besieged not less that 13 times over its existence, captured four times, and was the one castle most often attacked by Scots.

April 5, 2023--Dryburgh Abbey

First, an aside.  Walter Scott began writing Marmion in November, 1806, after his successful Lay of the Last Minstrel was published in January 1805.  Lay of the Last Minstrel was a romantic tale that received critical acclaim.  It would establish Scott's reputation as a poet and later as a novelist.  That said, the earlier anthology of Border ballads (Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, published in 1802) was also quite successful, having sold through multiple print runs.

April 5, 2023--Dryburgh Abbey

Marmion is an historical fiction, set during the Battle of Flodden Field (September 9, 1513).  Scott's protagonist, Lord Marmion, gets his mistress (Constance, a nun) to help plot the downfall of Sir Ralph de Wilton...Marmion sought to wed Wilton's fiancee, Clara.  Wilton is driven into exile.  But rather than marry Marmion, Clara joined a monastery.  

April 5, 2023--Dryburgh Abbey and Scott's grave

Constance is ultimately found out, and was walled up alive in her island convent for breaking her vows.  Before meeting her gruesome fate, Constance turned over documents proving Wilton's innocence.  Marmion was killed in battle at Flodden Field, whereas Wilton goes on to distinguish himself there, reclaiming his reputation, his land and--his fiancee.

April 6, 2023--Scott Courthouse Museum and statue, Selkirk, Scotland

Tedious perhaps, but the works of Sir Walter Scott are not all arcane.  For example, from Marmion we get the famous aphorism:  "Oh! what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive!"  (Often misattributed to Shakespeare).  Marmion is also the source of the popular ballad "Lochnivar:  Lady Heron's Song."  [See: https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2023/12/ye-olde-diversionary-amorous-attentions.html]

April 5, 2023--The Muses, at Dryburgh Abbey on River Tweed

Selling through its first edition of 2,000 copies in a month (priced at the exorbitant price of a guinea and a half), Marmion ran through twelve more printings between 1808 and 1825.  Scott would go on to author Lady of the Lake (which sold through 20,000 copies in the first year of publication), Lord of the Isles, the Waverly novels, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe and others.  Prodigious that is called.

April 8, 2023--Norham Castle

Back to Norham.  Begun in 1121 under Bishop Flambard, a "motte and bailey" wooden tower with ditches was built.  Fifteen years later, in 1136, Norham was taken by David, King of Scotland and then restored to its owner.  Two-years after that, David razed the castle to the ground claiming Northumerland in the process.  

However, in 1157, England's Henry II reclaimed Northumberland and...he began rebuilding in stone--the castle works at Bamburgh, at Newcastle and Wark-upon-Tweed.  Not to be outdone, the following year Hugh, Bishop of Durham, had a stone keep built at Norham.  The first and second stories of this keep, a part of the gatehouses and some of the curtain walls from Hugh's 1158 construction still survive to this day.

England's King John strengthened the castle from 1208 to 1212.  This effort helped it withstand a 40-day siege by Alexander II of Scotland who had invaded northern England in support of the Baron rebels in 1215.  

But perhaps the most significant event in Norham’s history occurred in May 1291.  Bishop Anthony Beck entertained Edward I at the castle while Edward arbitrated between 13 competitors for the Scottish throne.  Known as the "Great Cause," Edward's court of 104 persons discussed the rival claims for more than a year until Edward finally chose John Baliol in 1292.  

April 8, 2023--Outer Ward, Norham Castle

Three days later, Baliol paid homage to Edward in the hall at Norham.  And this ultimately led to the First War of Scottish Independence.  In 1318, Norham was besieged for an entire year by Robert Bruce, followed by a second siege for seven months the next year; both were unsuccessful.

April 8, 2023--Marmion's Gate, Norham Castle

April 8, 2023--Warehouse at Norham

In 1513, James IV invaded England, abandoning the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between England and Scotland (signed October 31, 1502) and which was in fact working well for Scotland.  Advised against it, James IV favored the Auld Alliance with France.  Thus, the chivalrous James IV invaded, despite his court.  And the favorite target was...Norham Castle.  After five days of bombardment, it succumbed to James IV's artillery...with as many as 20 large caliber guns (though it is somewhat uncertain on the total number actually brought to bear).  Apparently, the mighty "Mons Meg" cannon (22 inch) was not deployed.

James IV's court proved right.  Noham would not long be in a reduced state.  Following the Flodden Field disaster (for Scotland), Norham was immediately reoccupied and rebuilt over the next 8 years.  This time it was "stuffed with artillery"--according to Sir Robert Bowes (1542).  

April 8, 2023--Tower

By the time of the Border Survey of 1551, however, Norham's fortifications were "in much decay".  In 1559, the castle passed to the Crown when Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, meaning he would not acknowledge Queen Elizabeth I as the Head of the Church due to her protestant beliefs. 

With it, Elizabeth had something of a money pit.  In 1580, it was suggested that Norham would "fall flat to the ground" without an investment in repairing it.  Meanwhile, having fortifications work ongoing in Berwick costing vast sums of money, Queen Elizabeth finally refused to pay for Norham's further restoration in 1596.  It had outgrown its strategic purpose.  Or rather, the Union of the Crowns made it redundant.  And so Norham, Queen of Border Fortresses, was thereafter left to the elements...and quarry men.  (It was used as a cheap source of stone for building the homes in the Village of Norham.) 

In 1923, Norham passed into state care, and is a Grade I listed building as well as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.  The days of stone robbing are thankfully at an end.

April 8, 2023--Guarding the fords on River Tweed

A couple random photos to give a flavor of the place.  One of which is of the castle ovens.  The garrison had to be fed.  In any case, an interesting view with vitrified stone.

April 8, 2023--Ovens at Norham

April 8, 2023--Norham brew house foundation

Last but not least is the foundation of the castle's brew house.  The garrison was also a rather thirsty lot it seems.  Built near the castle wells.  The thought of which makes me somewhat queasy, as the photo of the wells may indicate.  But they were a hardy lot "Caroused in seas of sable beer," as Marmion put it, and "thy well-earned meed."

April 8, 2023--the castle wells

April 8, 2023--Norham Castle