Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Field Visit

Date 12 November 1928

Event ID 1098992

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1098992

Sixteenth-Century Fortification, Inchkeith.

A fort was constructed upon Inchkeith by the English during their occupation of the island in the early part of 1549, but, as it was raised within a fortnight (1), it can have been only a temporary structure of timber and earth. After the recovery of the island, however, it was again fortified in 1550 on behalf of the Scots (2), probably by their allies the French, who were still in garrison there in 1558 (3). A description of the fort in 1560 speaks of the wall as "30 foot thick, i.e. 14 foot of stone and 16 of earth” (4). The Parliament of 1567 ordered the demolition of the place (5), but much of it still existed in 1773 (6). In 1803, however, most of this was removed, when a lighthouse was erected on the site.

What remains is a stretch of rubble masonry 50 yards in length, and averaging 5 ½ feet thick, which was part of the outer wall on the northeast side. Piers of squared stones, built out-and-in band, are placed in the rubble work about 12 feet apart from centre to centre, their purpose being apparently to stiffen the wall. Within a short re-entrant is a gun embrasure, 2 feet 2 inches wide, which has a semi-circular head of Continental type and was probably the work of a foreign engineer. Beneath the signal tower is a core of rubble, which may be the base of a 16th-century structure.

An armorial panel bearing the Royal arms has been inserted over the entrance to the courtyard of the lighthouse. The shield seems to be enclosed within an Order, and beneath it a repainted the initials of M(aria) R(egina), while lower down is the date 1564, carved in relief and also painted.

RCAHMS 1933, visited 12 November 1928.

(1) Histoire de la Guerre d'Ecosse, 1548-9, Jean de Beaugué (Maitland Club), pp. 128,134; Calderwood's History of the Kirk of Scotland (Wodrow Soc.), i, pp. 260-1. 2 Reg. Privy Co., i, p. 90. (3) Calendar of Scottish Papers, i, p. 206. (4) Ibid., p. 365. (5) Acts Parl. Scot., iii, p. 33. (6) Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands, ed. 1791, p. 3.

People and Organisations

References