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Branxholme Castle
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Branxholme Castle is a five-storey tower at Branxholme,
about 3 miles south-west of Hawick in the Borders region of Scotland.
The present castle is on land owned by the Clan Scott since 1420. The
Earl of Northumberland burned the first castle in 1532. The next held
out against the English in the War of the Rough Wooing in 1547. But in
due course the Scotts themselves slighted the castle in 1570, the
English, under the Earl of Essex, finishing the job with gunpowder.
Within a decade Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch had commenced the
rebuilding. The Scotts were during these troubled years frequently the
Wardens of the Middle March. The castle was extensively remodelled by
William Burn in 1837 for the 5th Duke of Buccleuch. The Branksome Hall
School in Toronto, Canada, is named after this castle, and has been
given a replica of a mantle from the castle.
The Estate centred on Branxholme (pronounced locally as "brank-sum")
Castle was initially owned by the Lovels, the Baliols, the Murrays and
the Inglises before passing to the Scotts. In 1420 in the reign of James
I, half of the lands were exchanged between Robert Scott, Lord of
Murthockston and the Inglises for Murthockston in Lanarkshire. It is
said that this followed Sir Thomas Inglis complaining of incursions by
the English and that after the trade Sir William Scott remarked that
‘the cattle of Cumberland were as good as those of Teviotdale’ (but in
fact the trade was between the fathers of these two gentlemen). While
the name "Buccleuch" remained integral to the Scott line, their
residence now moved about 9 miles as the crow flies from their home
beside the Rankle Burn to Branxholme, an estate a few miles south of
Hawick, overlooking the river Teviot.
Robert Scott died in 1426 and was succeeded by his son Walter who was
knighted in 1436 with the designation "Lord of the Buccleuch".
In 1446, in the reign of James II, the other half of the estate was
granted to Sir Walter Scott and his son Sir David to be held in ‘blanch’
of the Crown, for the payment of a red rose at the feast of St. John the
Baptist. The land has been owned by the Scotts of Buccleuch since then.
The farm at Branxholme was burned (but probably not a defensive tower)
and raided around 1510 by John Dalgleish and English thieves, including
‘Black John’ Routledge. An English raiding party then burned the tower,
farm and neighbouring farms in 1533/4. The tower and farm was again
burned in 1544, when the English took 600 cows, 600 sheep, 200 goats, 30
prisoners, as well as killing 8 men - the Inglis family probably thought
they had got away from the estate in good time. It was described as a
‘24 merk land’ in 1553/4, when inherited by Walter Scott, from his
grandfather, also Sir Walter; the mansion and mill are also mentioned. ‘Branxhelme,
Eister and Wester, with fortalice, maner place, and wodis therof’ are
mentioned in 1586. Pont’s map of the 1590s shows an enclosure around the
estate, including much of the present Branxholme Park, and some of
Branxholme Braes, with much of it being wooded. The name is also used
for the hamlet near there, previously having many more houses, and
sometimes being referred to as ‘Branxholme Town’.
A major reconstruction of Branxholme castle in 1571-74 created a much
larger set of buildings but retained the two towers - Nesbie and Tenty-fit.
The work was carried out initially by Sir Walter Scott but was not
completed by the time of his death at Branxholme in April 1574 (to be
succeeded by yet another Walter Scott, aged 9) but was completed by his
widow, Lady Margaret Douglas and finished in 1576. There is an
impressive set of plaques still on the wall of the castle detailing the
dual responsibilities for the work which incorporate the Buccleuch and
Douglas armorial symbols.
The young Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch soon grew up and became involved
in the usual raiding and feuding - he led the raid on Carlisle Castle
that rescued William Armstrong of Kinmont (Kinmont Willie in the old
ballad). The raid enraged Queen Elizabeth I who demanded that Sir Walter
appear before her in London. King James VI of Scotland, by now hopeful
of inheriting the English throne on Elizabeth's death, forced Sir Walter
to undertake the journey to confront her. Sir Walter made a stout
defence (Kinmont Willie had been captured on a day of truce, for
example) and so impressed Elizabeth that the charges against him were
quietly dropped!
After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the days of reiving and violence
were much reduced - and Buccleuch energetically pacified Liddesdale and
even found time to take part in a war in the Netherlands. In 1606 he was
made Lord Scott of Buccleuch but continued to be better known as Lord
Buccleuch. He died in 1611 and was succeeded by another Walter, 2nd Lord
of Buccleuch who became Earl of Buccleuch in 1619 as the Buccleuch star
rose ever higher - becoming Dukes of Buccleuch in 1663 when Anne,
daughter and heiress of the 2nd Earl married James, Duke of Monmouth,
the illegitimate son of King Charles II. In 1685 Monmouth led the
unsuccessful rebellion in an attempt to depose his uncle, King James
II/VII. Although Monmouth was executed, his widow Anne Scott, the first
Duchess of Buccleuch (pictured here with two of her sons), cleverly
managed to hold on to the Buccleuch estates and titles. She later
married the 3rd Baron Cornwallis, with whom she had three children. Anne
died in 1732, aged 80 and her titles passed to her grandson, Francis.
The tenant farmer through much of the 18th and 19th centuries was the
Chamberlain to the (by now) Duke of Buccleuch, who lived at Branxholme
from about 1767. The area was used as a setting for one of Allan
Ramsay’s songs ‘The Bonnie Lass of Branksome’.
Perhaps to make a more comfortable residence for the Chamberlain, the
castle was again remodelled in 1837 and it is that building we see
today. Internally, there is no grand hall or imposing staircase but
instead, a series of smaller rooms.
Branxholme ceased to be the main home of the Buccleuch family when they
remodelled Bowhill House near Selkirk in the early 1830s. The castle,
used as a wedding venue, is being restored by the current owners.
Notes:
• Lady Margaret Douglas (Born 1558 in Cockburnspath, Berwickshire,
Scotland; Died 1640 in Buccleuch, Croslee, Teviotdale, Scotland) was the
daughter of David Douglas, 7th Earl
of Angus, and his wife, Margaret Hamilton.
Margaret married Walter Scott when he was only sixteen years of age. He
had by her a son, Walter, and two daughters. She took for her second
husband Francis Stewart, the factious and intriguing Earl of Bothwell,
to whom she bore three sons and three daughters. She survived her first
husband for the long period of sixty-six years, and died in the year
1640. |
Sources
Sources for this article include:
The Castles of Scotland, Martin Coventry
The Hawick Word Book,Prof Douglas Scott
Historical Notes on Branxholme, William Elliot Lockhart.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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