Tantallon Castle's Last
Great Siege, 1651
In 1650 the Scots army was defeated at the battle of Dunbar by
Oliver Cromwell's army. However, several Scots units of horsemen
'Moss troopers' and 'Desperado gallants' continued to resist from
the castles of Innerwick, Dirleton and Tantallon. At some point
Innerwick was 'quitted' by these Moss troopers before a siege could
take place. Dirleton castle was then besieged using great mortar
pieces which tore open the drawbrige and portcullis allowing the
English to enter by storm. A fragment of one of these mortar bombs
(basically a hollow cannonball filled with gunpower and a fuse) is
still on dispay at Dirleton castle today.
Cromwell's forces,
under General Monk, then regrouped at Dirleton using it as a camp
before besieging Tantallon castle and its Desperado Gallants in
1651. The walled town infront of Tantallon's defences was attacked
first. This castle-town (known today as Castleton farm) was taken
after two days of street fighting where an English army of two to
three thousand faced less than one hundred Scots. The Scots in the
retreat burnt down two of the town's brewhouses to stop them falling
into enemy hands.
These Desperado Gallants under the command
of 'Captain Alexander Setton' then tried to hold the outer
entrenchment, infront of the castles' Ravelin a V shaped cannon
platform to keep Cromwell's 'gun-battery of granadoes and six
battering pieces' as far away from the castles' main curtain wall as
possible. But during the 12 day bombardment this trench was stormed
and English sappers moved against the Ravelin and positioned their
cannons to devestating effect, destroying Ravelin, Spurwork gate
house and breaching the main curtain wall on the right hand side of
the foretower, filling the great ditch with rubble. One unfortunate
English sapper tried to blast open a postern door way beside the
forework, at ditch level, but it is thought his leg was blasted
clean off by a 6 inch forework cannon fired at almost point blank
range, as he ran from the doorway.
As Cromwell's men entered
by storm through the breach, the remaining Scots held out in the top
of the forework, resolving to sell their lives as good as they could
if quarter not be given. Surprisingly, the English seeing 'them
stand gallantly to it' offered them quarter and their lives were
spared. So they officially surrendered at 4 o'clock on the 21st
February 1651 the last great siege of Tantallon.
Andrew
Spratt
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Scots flee from castltown to outer defences |
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Battle reconstructions by Andrew Spratt |
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Scotts moss troopers |
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Battle reconstructions by Andrew Spratt |
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Scots flee to Castletown |
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Battle reconstructions by Andrew Spratt |
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Scots try to hold trench in front of Ravelin |
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Battle reconstructions by Andrew Spratt |
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Outer trench and Ravelin bombarded. |
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Battle reconstructions by Andrew Spratt |
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Scots retreat to Ravelin and Spurwork |
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Battle reconstructions by Andrew Spratt |
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See also:
Tantallon
Castle
Any contributions to this item will be
gratefully accepted
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