Visit to Dirleton Castle

I took a half day’s holiday today and we went for a drive to Dirleton, which is near the coast east of Edinburgh.  We started with an excellent lunch at the Castle Inn, perhaps a little pricey for a lunchtime but excellent food and situated just across the road from the castle

We then had a fairly brisk walk around the castle.  The weather wasn’t bad for January if a little nippy and overcast

During the Scottish Wars of independence the castle was held for a period by the English before being slighted by Robert the Bruce, the fate of many Scottish castles.  The English used castles to dominate the country and ready built Scottish ones were an ideal source. The Scots did not have the resources to properly defend all of them so slighting those most at risk of capture was seen as the best way to deny their use to the enemy.

The castle was subsequently rebuilt and became a fine residence as well as retaining it’s defensible characteristics.   It was not however able to resist Cromwell and it fell once again to military action in 1650.  Not long after it was abandoned and became a picturesque ruin.  It is in the care of historic Scotland and if you fancy a visit I would suggest looking up their website for directions, prices etc.

We have visited before and in the summer the gardens are spectacular. They seemed to have only suffered minimal damage from the recent storms but are of course not at their best at this time of year. I took a couple of photos but the light was not that good.

 

It would be good to have some comments as to how interesting this sort of post is.  We often visit castles, abbeys, battlefields and other historic sites on days out and when on holiday so my hope is that brief reports such as this will be a regular feature.

My photography will improve!