Newark Tower is a large, ruined

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

standing in the grounds of Bowhill House, in the valley of the Yarrow Water three miles west of Selkirk in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. In addition to the

keep A keep 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 castles that were fortified residen ...

, sections of a gatehouse and wall survive. It has been designated a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () 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 merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

History

Newark Tower was granted to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown around 1423. It was incomplete at this time and work continued until about 1475. The surrounding barmkin was added around 1550, and the present battlements and two square

cap-house A cap-house (sometimes written cap house or caphouse) is a small watch room, built at the top of a spiral staircase, often giving access to a parapet on the roof of a tower house or castle. They provided protection from the elements by enclosin ...

s date from about 1600. Newark castle nr Selkirk

After the fall of the Black Douglases in 1455 the Tower was held by the crown. The exchequer rolls include payments for repairs, and in the 1460s Thomas Joffrey was master of the castle's fabric. In 1473 it was given to Margaret of Denmark, wife of James III. The royal arms are visible on the west

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

. The castle became the administrative centre of the Royal Forest of Ettrick, and the seven-storey tower house was built in these years. Alexander, Lord Home, was keeper of the castle and forest from 1490.

Margaret Tudor Margaret Tudor (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541) was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She then served as regent of Scotland during her son's minority, and fought to exte ...

, wife of

James IV James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauch ...

and mother of

James V James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV a ...

, was given the tower of Newark with the lands and lordship of Ettrick forest as part of her marriage gift on 1 June 1503. She came to Newark in June 1532 to keep the Forest Court of Ettrick. The Laird of Buccleuch refused to give her the keys, until James V who was hunting at Cramalt in Meggotland sent confirmation. Margaret gave the keys to her husband Lord Methven. Newark was unsuccessfully besieged by an English army in 1547, but was burnt the following year.

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

of Branxholme was made Keeper and Captain of Newark, and Baillie and Chamberlain of Ettrick Forest in December 1573. In 1645, during the

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...

, 100 royalist followers of the Marquis of Montrose were shot in the barmkin of Newark after the

Battle of Philiphaugh The Battle of Philiphaugh was fought on 13 September 1645 during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. The Royalist army of the Marquis of Montrose was destroyed by the Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie, ...

. The Tower is believed to be haunted by the souls of the 300 slaughtered women and children also murdered at the site after the battle, whose cries are heard each year on 13 September. The Tower was altered for Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch at the end of the 17th century. It was visited by

and

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Dorothy Wordsworth in 1831. Walter Scott framed the story of '' The Lay of the Last Minstrel'' there.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Castles in the Scottish Borders Castles in the Scottish Borders Scheduled monuments in the Scottish Borders Newark Tower, Selkirkshire Yarrow Valley Reportedly haunted locations in Scotland Tower houses in Scotland

History

See also

References

Bibliography