Some ten miles
south west of Edinburgh sits the ancient castle of Roslin. The name Roslin
is taken from it's location 'the Rock of falls'. Today the site of the
15th century castle although partly in ruins still strikes an impressive
stance astride it's rocky spur almost encircled by a loop of the North Esk
river. It was originally built by the Sinclair family, Earls of Orkney in
the mid 15th century. Though there is the suggestion that both the castle
and the nearby ornamental chapel are of an earlier date. It is said that
the infamous Prince Henry Sinclair was born at the castle. He, it is
claimed, along with Clan Gunn from Clyth castle in Caithness made the epic
voyage of discovery to America, landing at Nova Scotia then on to
Massachusetts. In
fact an effigy of Sir James Gunn of Clyth who died during
this trip is still in existence,
being known as the Westford Knight. The castle's partly ruined state today
is likely due to the siege by the English in 1544 in a campaign which
became known as the wars of the 'Rough Wooing' where by use of castle
burning throughout Scotland the English hoped to force the marriage of the
infant Mary Queen of Scots to the English Prince Edward. Such castle
assaults though resulted in Mary being sent to France where she married
the Daphine heir to the French throne which further angered the English.
The main modern apartments of Roslin are within the 1597 hall/kitchen
block on the south east side of the castle site, raised on the foundations
of an earlier 15th century wall. This section was originally five storeys
high with a turnpike staircase and draw well hatches connecting each
level. To the north sits the ruined shell of the gateway block-house.
Directly in front of this linked by a collapsible wooden bridge was a
single drawbridge tower.
The space between these has been built up in
stone in modern times, though it is still easy to imagine how formidable
this arrangement must have been to any would-be attacker. The depth of the
gorge between the site of the drawbridge and the site the originally outer
bridge appears very impressive today. However this level is misleading
since there has had an infill of at least 20ft of rubble debris from the
ruined gatehouse. So that back in 1450 this gorge would have been much
deeper and wider making any assaults from this front out of the question. |
|
The wall running west from the block-house is noteworthy being made up of
seven V-plan towers mounted by bartizans (open turrets), two of which were
originally roofed by conical caps. Why only two were roofed is a bit of a
puzzle. These towers by their shape and construction would deflect attacks
by magonels and trebuchets (giant siege engines that hurled rocks) as this
section would be vulnerable to assaults from the west, though the towers
do appear to be overly ornate in their design. These series of towers led
on to the great Keep, the tallest feature of the original castle, now
sadly a shell of it's former stature. The Keep was oblong in plan with
machicolated battlements and was very similar to Cranshaws tower near Duns
in the borders. On the south-facing fragment of the Keep, well below the
machicolations, are the marks of a lean-to roof at walk-wall battlement
level, overlooking the site of the original walled medieval village of
Roslin (now non-existent). This evidence suggests the presence of a roofed
wooden hoarding slotted through and overhanging the stone battlements.
From here, during times of siege, defenders could provide defensive
archery fire for the castle and village without risk of injury to
themselves. If the village fell and the besieging army approached the base
of the west wall itself, incendiary devices would be dropped from the
hoarding. Anything from burning oil, fiery faggots (straw bales) and a
favourite toasted pig carcasses packed with goose grease with rope fuses
which exploded and stuck to their victims on impact. A kind of medieval
napalm!
Obviously the hoarding was only a temporary line of defence and when it
was damaged or set ablaze it was simply unslotted and dropped on the
besiegers below, revealing the intact stone battlements behind. If this
too was breached and entered by storm the garrison would rally in the
great Keep itself as the final stand point since it could be sealed off
from the rest of the castle. Unfortunately such well thought out defenses
built around resisting boulders, arrows and siege ladders were no match
for the arrival of gunpowder and in 1544 when these defenses were tested
the keep and west wall were torn to pieces from several hundred yards
away. A sad end to a well planned castle. After this more emphasis appears
to have been placed on the 1597 block with additional work done in the
1620's. Thankfully enough remains of this unusual Sinclair castle today to
fire the imagination of visitors.
Andrew Spratt
|