Old Woodhouselee Castle

Castle, Old Woodhouselee.

The ruin of this structure is situated within the grounds of Firth House. The site is an overhanging rock on the left bank of the river North Esk, the bed of which is 150 feet below. In it is a cleft, partly excavated but for the most part natural, the shape and extent of which has governed the disposition of the structure. On the ground floor there is a ruinous oblong range containing three vaulted and intercommunicating cellars lit by small windows in the haunches of the vaults. At the first-floor level a small wing projects and is founded on the higher ground above the cleft on the north-north-east, so that the structure at this and the higher levels is L-shaped on plan. The walls of the wing are reduced to the foundations. The southwest angle of the main block, which is the highest portion, is some 20 feet above the floor of the basement. Here there is a small window with freest one jambs and lintel, on which is wrought an edge-roll moulding with flanking hollows, the only piece of moulded or dressed masonry left. The structure, which measures externally 63 feet from north-east to south-west, is 22 feet wide across the main wing; the lesser wing projects 15 ¾ feet from the lateral wall and is 17 ¼ feet wide. The walls are 3 feet 2 inches to 3 feet 8 inches thick, and are constructed of irregularly coursed rubble with undressed quoins alternately long and short. The building, which dates from the 16th or early 17th century, is in the last stages of decay.

HISTORICAL NOTE. Woodhouselee is said to have been the property of the wife of James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, the assassin of the Regent Moray in 1570. Her eviction in most cruel circumstances is given as one motive for his action, the estate having been granted to Sir John Ballenden or Ballantyne, twice Justice Clerk. On 12 January 1591/2 the Privy Council declared that David Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, Isobel Sinclair and Alison Sinclair, heirs-portioners of the lands of Woodhouselee, should be repossessed in the lands, etc., where of they had been deprived by occasion of the late troubles; and this instruction was repeated in an Act of Parliament of 1609 (1). In 1601 Sir James Ballantyne of Broughton made complaint: that his tenants at Woodhouselee had been threatened by David Hamilton, younger of Bothwellhaugh, and his accomplices (2). In 1607 William Ballantyne (‘Ballenden’) served heir to his father, Sir James Ballantyne of Broughton, in the Woodhouselee lands (3).

RCAHMS 1929, visited 2 August 1915.

(1) Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i, part ii, p. 266; Acts Parl. Scot., iv, p. 450; (2) Reg. Pr. Co., vi, p. 211; (3) Inquis. Spec., Edin., No. 218.