Kingston is a small hamlet near

North Berwick North Berwick (; gd, Bearaig a Tuath) is a seaside town A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on th ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Kingston was once known as Kings Seat; historic maps of the area show this.

Archaeology and Prehistory

In 2001, workmen excavating a pipe trench discovered human remains. CFA Archaeology was commissioned by Historic Scotland (now

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

) to investigate. The subsequent excavations discovered a range of archaeological features - two prehistoric short-

cists A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Eas ...

and thirty-eight early medieval long-cist burials. The medieval long cist was dated to the 6th-8th centuries AD. A stone with a Maltese cross was found, which may be related to the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

, who were known to own land in the area in the 15th century AD.

Fenton Tower

Fenton Tower in Kingston is a refurbished 16th century tower house. It retains the original footprint of the square

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

, but now encompasses 7000 sq. ft. of living space over several levels. Fenton Tower was used as the location for Archie's castle in the BBC children's programme ''

Balamory ''Balamory'' is a British live-action children's programme on BBC One, BBC Two and CBeebies for pre-school children, about a fictional small island community off the west coast of Scotland, named ''Balamory''. Four series were produced between ...

''. The tower is depicted as being bright pink in the show, although in reality it is a more traditional off-white to Stone Grey colour, with the hue added in

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

. Fenton Tower was built on the lands of 'Fentoun'. "During the reign of

King David I David I or Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim (Scottish Gaelic language, Modern: ''Daibhidh I mac haoilChaluim''; – 24 May 1153) was a 12th-century ruler who was David, Prince of the Cumbrians, Prince of the Cumbrians from 1113 to 1124 and later Ki ...

of Scots (1124-1153) the lands of 'Fentoun' along with the lands of Gullane, Archerfield, Dirleton and Fidra island were all held by the Anglo-Norman De-vaux family who later gifted 'Fentoun' to their English kin the De-vauxs of

Lanercost Priory Lanercost Priory was founded by Robert de Vaux between 1165 and 1174, the most likely date being 1169, to house Augustinian canons. The priory is situated at the village of Lanercost, Cumbria, England, within sight of Naworth Castle, with which ...

. In the mid 12th century the De-vauxs built a 'castri' on the Fidra, a chapel at Gullane, a tower of 'Eilbote' at Archerfield (which must have been a place of some importance since King David signed a charter for the lands of Carberry witnessed at 'El bottle' ) and finally a stone castle at Dirleton itself during the reign of King Alexander II of Scots (1214-1249)"

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

visited several times, as a guest of

Sir John Carmichael Sir John Carmichael (died 16 June 1600) was a Scottish soldier, the Keeper of Liddesdale, a diplomat, and owner of Fenton Tower at Kingston, East Lothian. Career He was the son of John Carmichael and Elizabeth Somerville, a daughter of Hugh Some ...

, who built the castle, which was described in January 1591 as 'a fair house' when Carmichael was having a dispute over the ownership of the site with the Laird of Innerwick. In May 1592 James stayed with his wife

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

attended by his English servant

Roger Aston Sir Roger Aston (died 23 May 1612) of Cranford, Middlesex, was an English courtier and favourite of James VI of Scotland. Biography Aston was the illegitimate son of Thomas Aston (died 1553), Thomas Aston (died 1553). Scottish sources spell his n ...

. Fenton Tower is a Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Images

File:A row of white-washed cottages at Kingston - geograph.org.uk - 1250595.jpg, A row of white-washed cottages at Kingston File:Balgone Windmill - geograph.org.uk - 1597240.jpg, Balgone Windmill File:Kingston - geograph.org.uk - 115976.jpg, Kingston File:Fenton Tower - geograph.org.uk - 366565.jpg, Fenton Tower

Notable Persons

(died 16 June 1600) Lord Warden of the Western Marches *Prof

Alan James Duncan Alan James Duncan FRSE FRSA (4 November 1938 – 9 July 1999) was a Scottish atomic physicist who created a metastable atomic hydrogen beam apparatus used to first observe the two-photon decay of metastable hydrogen and measure fundamental ...

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1938-1999) atomic physicist *Prof

Jamie A. Davies Jamie A. Davies FRSE FLSW is a British scientist, Professor of Experimental Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, and leader of a laboratory in its Centre for Integrative Physiology. He works in the fields of Developmental biology, Synthetic ...

(1965- ) developmental biologist/ bioengineer.

References

External links

Fenton Tower
official site
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (CANMORE)
Reports on historical monuments around Kingston

Kingston entry {{East Lothian towns and villages Populated places in East Lothian North Berwick