In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Dunglass like this:
Dunglass, a mansion in Oldhamstocks parish, E Haddingtonshire, standing in the midst of a fine park, ¾ mile inland, and 1½ mile NW of Cockburnspath. An elegant edifice, surmounted by a tower, it occupies the site of a strong castle of the Lords Home, which, passing, on their forfeiture in 1516, to the Douglases, was besieged and destroyed by the English under the Earl of Northumberland in the winter of 1532, and again under the Protector Somerset in 1547. ...
It was rebuilt in greater extent and grandeur than before, and gave accommodation in 1603 to James VI. and all his retinue when on his journey to London; but, being held in 1640 by a party of Covenanters under the Earl of Haddington, whom Leslie had left behind to watch the garrison of Berwick, it was blown up with gunpowder on 30 August. An English page, according to Scotstarvet, vexed by a taunt against his countrymen, thrust a red-hot iron into a powder barrel, and himself was killed, with the Earl and many others. Dunglass is the seat now of Sir Basil Francis Hall, seventh Bart. since 1687 (b. 1828; suc. 1876), who holds 887 acres in the shire, valued at £2158 per annum. Dunglass was the birthplace of his grandfather, Sir James Hall (1761-1832), the distinguished geologist and chemist. A wooded, deep ravine called Dunglass Dean, and traversed by Berwick or Dunglass Burn, extends 4½ miles north-north-eastward to the sea, along the mutual border of Haddington and Berwick shires. It is spanned by two bridges not far from each other on old and new lines of road, and by an intermediate magnificent railway viaduct, whose middle arch is 135 feet in span, and rises 125 feet from the bed of the stream to the top of the parapet. With five other arches toward the ravine's crests, this viaduct is, in itself, an object of great architectural beauty; and combines with the adjacent bridges and with the ravine's features of rock and wood and water to form an exquisitely striking scene.—Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863.
Dunglass through time
Dunglass is now part of East Lothian district. Click here for graphs and data of how East Lothian has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Dunglass itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Dunglass in East Lothian | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21834
Date accessed: 24th April 2024
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