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Neidpath Castle

Neidpath Castle stands dramatically on a steep bluff overlooking the River Tweed. Its 14th century walls are more than 10 feet thick but when Cromwell’s artillery relentlessly pounded them with cannon, the castle’s owner, the Earl of Tweeddale, was forced to surrender.

In the 18th century the castle passed to the Douglas family, Dukes of Queensberry. In 1795, when the 2nd Duke found himself strapped for cash he ordered the felling of every marketable tree on the estate. This spectacular act of environmental vandalism resulted in the duke becoming the target of a wrathful sonnet by William Wordsworth which begins with the words “Degenerate Douglas…”

Sir Walter Scott visited Neidpath frequently when his friend, Adam Ferguson, rented it at the end of the 18th century. It is the epitome of a Scottish tower house, and originally consisted of three great vaulted halls, one above the other (though the top vault was subsequently removed and replaced by a timber roof), reached by winding stone staircases. Below what was the guardroom, there is a genuine dungeon into which prisoners were sometimes lowered  and in many cases forgotten about. Mary Stuart and James VI both visited the castle, and a series of Batik wall hangings depict Mary’s tragic life.