Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society
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TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY VOL. XXXII 2019 TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY THIRTY-SECOND VOLUME 2019 ISSN 0140 1637 HADDINGTON DESIGNED BY DAWSON CREATIVE (www.dawsoncreative.co.uk) AND PRINTED BY EAST LOTHIAN COUNCIL PRINT UNIT FOR MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY i THE EDITOR OF THE TRANSACTIONS Arran Johnston ([email protected]) welcomes contributions for the next Transactions (VOL XXXIII) Front cover illustration: Reconstruction drawing of Hall B and its encircling palisade at Doon Hill, near Dunbar, drawn by Dr Brian Hope-Taylor following his excavations there between 1964 and 1966. Dr Hope-Taylor dated the hall to the Anglian period c.650 AD. However, recent research indicates that it was much older, dating from the Early Neolithic c.3,800 BC. (© HES (Brian Hope-Taylor)). Back cover illustration: Dr James S Richardson, Scotland’s first Inspector of Ancient Monuments, near Tantallon Castle in the late 1920s with the Bass Rock in the background. During his period in office (1914-48), ‘JSR’ was responsible for taking many of Scotland’s Ancient Monuments into State care, including the great East Lothian castles of Tantallon, Dirleton and Hailes. (© David Richardson). Further information about the society can be found on the website: http://eastlothianantiquarians.org.uk/ ii CONTENTS OBITUARY: SIR HEW FLEETWOOD HAMILTON-DALRYMPLE, 10TH BARONET, GCVO. BORN 9 APRIL 1926 – DIED 26 DECEMBER 2018 VICE PRESIDENT OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD Naturalists’ SOCIETY 1989-2018 by STEPHEN BUNYAN 1 GOING BACK IN TIME: RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE TIMBER HALLS AT DOON HILL, DUNBAR by IAN RALSTON 4 NEW THOUGHTS ON OLD PLACE-NAMES: TYNINGHAME AND WHITTINGEHAME by ALAN JAMES 28 TWO OLD ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES: HADDINGTON AND CLERKINGTON by LIZ CURTIS 36 A MEDIEVAL PALACE REVEALED: HADDINGTON’S HISTORIC ROYAL RESIDENCE by HELEN ROBERTSON with CHRIS TABRAHAM 42 DIGGING UP TANTALLON: ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT THE CASTLE 1888–2014 by GORDON EWART and DENNIS GALLAGHER 68 FROM OLD TO NEW: THE CREATION OF THE PRESENT VILLAGE OF TYNINGHAME by JOY DODD 94 THE MONUMENT MAN: JAMES SMITH RICHARDSON, 1883–1970 by DAVID RICHARDSON, DAVID BREEZE, AILSA FORTUNE and CHRIS TABRAHAM 112 APPENDIX Annual Reports of the Council of the Society 142 INDEX 152 iii Figure 1: Sir Hew and Lady Anne-Louise Hamilton-Dalrymple pose in front of a portrait of Sir Hew’s forebear, Sir Hew Dalrymple, 1st baronet (c.1653-1737). The painting, by William Aikman, the renowned Scottish portrait painter, was purchased by the Friends of North Berwick Museum and gifted to the Coastal Communities Museum, North Berwick. (Photo courtesy of Ian Goodall, North Berwick Photographic Society) iv OBITUARY: SIR HEW FLEETWOOD HAMILTON-DALRYMPLE, 10TH BARONET, GCVO. BORN 9 APRIL 1926 – DIED 26 DECEMBER 2018 VICE PRESIDENT OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQuarian AND FIELD Naturalists’ SOCIETY 1989-2018 by STEPHEN BUNYAN INTRODUCTION Sir Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple (fig 1) was a man of many parts, who played several key roles in East Lothian life. His family are East Lothian landowners of long standing. The baronetcy was created in 1697 for the Hon. Hew Dalrymple, Lord President of the Court Session, who was gazetted Lord North Berwick. The estate included two of Scotland’s most important historic sites - The Bass Rock and Tantallon Castle. Sir Hew was born on 9 April 1926 in The Lodge, North Berwick, and educated at Ampleforth School, Yorkshire. His early career was as a soldier He passed out of Sandhurst with the Sword of Honour in 1944 and was commissioned as an officer in the Grenadier Guards. He spent his service career in various ‘hot spots’. He was ADC to the general in charge of the Northern Command in India at the time of the partition in 1947 and tried to halt bloodshed between the Muslims and Hindus. In due course he became the regimental adjutant. He retired from the Army in 1962 with the rank of major. Sir Hew succeeded his father, also Sir Hew, as 10th baronet in 1959 and soon returned to East Lothian. Five years previously (25 September 1954) he had married Lady Anne-Louise Mary Keppel, youngest daughter of the 9th earl of Albemarle, and together they established a new family home within the walled garden at Leuchie. It was an early sign of Sir Hew’s generous spirit that Leuchie House itself, the erstwhile family home, built in 1779-85 and much extended in the 1850s, was entrusted to a community of Servite nuns for use as a holiday home for suffers of multiple sclerosis; today, it serves successfully as a Scottish national respite centre. 1 OBITUARY: SIR HEW FLEETWOOD HAMILTON-DALRYMPLE, 10TH BARONET, GCVO. Figure 2: Sir Hew attends the 10th birthday of the North Berwick Day Centre on 21 March 2015. Standing beside him, with the birthday cake, is Ella Aikman, the longest-serving member of the Day Centre. (Photo courtesy of Ian Goodall, North Berwick Photographic Society) On returning to civilian life, Sir Hew pursued a business career and joined Scottish and Newcastle Breweries Ltd, rising to become a director and subsequently chairman from 1983 to 1986. He also served as chairman of the Scottish American Investment Company [SAINTS] between 1985 and 1991. The first of his public appointments came in 1964 when he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of East Lothian; he subsequently became Vice-Lord-Lieutenant in 1973, and finally Lord- Lieutenant in 1987, a position he held until 2001. Sir Hew also joined the Royal Company of Archers, the sovereign’s bodyguard in Scotland, becoming Captain- 2 OBITUARY: SIR HEW FLEETWOOD HAMILTON-DALRYMPLE, 10TH BARONET, GCVO. General and serving as Gold Stick for Scotland from 1996 to 2004. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1987. In recognition of his public service he was invested as Commander, Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1974, Knight Commander (KCVO) in 1985, and as Knight Grand Cross (GCVO) in 2001. Sir Hew and Lady Anne-Louise undertook many public duties and were much involved in affairs in the county, most especially North Berwick - Lady Anne-Louise crowned no less than 50 North Berwick Lifeboat Queens (fig 2). Sir Hew and Lady Anne-Louise also generously entrusted the West Links and Elcho Green, in North Berwick, for the use of the local community, and both are highly valued today as public amenities. Among the many organisations that benefitted from their patronage was our own society - the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society. They both became committed members and played host to us, both on the Bass Rock and at Leuchie House and Garden. Sir Hew was elected as a vice-president of the society in 1989, an office he held until his death. He offered to retire in 2018 and council conferred on him the title Vice-President Emeritus. Sir Hew had invaluable knowledge of East Lothian and gave friendly support to members in their research. By way of example, on 4 June 2011 he joined members at the re-dedication of the John Rennie Monument, at Phantassie, East Linton, which the society has in its care (fig 3). Sir Hew’s interest in the affairs of the society was greatly valued and he will be sadly missed. Sir Hew was predeceased by Lady Anne-Louise, who died in January 2017. He is survived by his four sons, Hew, the 11th baronet, Jock, Robert and William, and their families. Figure 3: Members of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society attend the re-dedication of the John Rennie Monument, at Phantassie, East Linton, on 4 June 2011. Sir Hew is standing on the far right. (Photo courtesy of Joy Dodd) 3 Figure 1: Professor Ian Ralston (centre right pointing) guides members of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society around Doon Hill in the summer of 2018. (photo: Chris Tabraham) 4 GOING BACK IN TIME: RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE TIMBER HALLS AT DOON HILL, DUNBAR by IAN RALSTON INTRODUCTION In the summer of 1959 cropmarks of the foundations of at least one substantial building set within an enclosure were discovered on the SE side of Doon Hill, some two miles (3¾ km) SSE of Dunbar (NGR NT 687755). An archaeological excavation led by Dr Brian Hope-Taylor, then of the University of Cambridge, was carried out between 1964 and 1966, with the result that the site was identified as dating from the sixth and seventh centuries AD. The Ministry of Public and Works (MOPBW) arranged for these archaeological features on Doon Hill to be taken into the care of the State; and in the 1970s the site was prepared and opened to the public (fig 1). In 1976 another cropmark with similarities to the major building at Doon Hill, at Balbridie to the east of Banchory in the Dee Valley, Aberdeenshire, was discovered from the air and subsequently excavated. With the benefit of radio- carbon dating, however, the Balbridie structure was dated to over four thousand years earlier than its East Lothian comparator, to the Early Neolithic period, so raising a number of controversies. Had Balbridie been dated from residual material much older than the construction of the major hall there? Alternatively, Doon Hill was not what it seemed, with at least the first building millennia older than had been proposed. Following Hope-Taylor’s death in 2001, his surviving archive was brought to Edinburgh, conserved and catalogued. Work on producing a definitive excavation report was subsequently put in train. This is on-going, and new work is planned at Doon Hill, but the evidence Hope-Taylor amassed now points to all the major structures at Doon Hill being far older than initially assumed.