PROCEEDINGS of the SOCIETY, APRIL 9, 1928. the CASTLES1 of RAVENSNOOK and UTTERSHILL, MIDLOTHIAN. by IAN C. HANNAH, F.S.A.Scot
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, APRIL 9, 1928. II. THE CASTLES1 OF RAVENSNOOK AND UTTERSHILL, MIDLOTHIAN. HANNAHC N BYIA , F.S.A.ScoT., P.S.A. Upo e Norte bank th k th standn f Es ho s a remarkabls e serief o s ancient seats of very different character and date. Brunstane supplies a fine specimen of the work of the sixteenth century. Penicuik House, prematurely in ruin, with its beautiful Square residence e fittew th s closno da , eby , form mosa s t superb exampla f eo great eighteenth-century mansion. Ravensnook, Uttershill, and Wood- houselee are interesting lairds' houses belonging to the sixteenth century. At Rosslyri is a striking castle clinging to the steep valley-side, present- g examplein wore th f differenf ko so t periods ranging downwards from e fourteentth h century. Hawthornde e remainth mediaevaa s f nha so l red sandstone tower, and close beside it stands a picturesque residence e seventeentth of h century, magnificently placed e palacTh t . a e Dalkeith is a huge but not very successful eighteenth-century structure, which incorporates part of the ancient castle of the Grahams and the Douglases. It is the only one of the series that is not peculiarly Scottish. s externait s a r Slo fa architectur concernes i e t dmighi t equally stand in an English park. Other castles and seats stand upon the banks of e rives neveth wa rs a r e Eskt navigablth bu , e they hav speciao n e l connection with each other. Amon e leasgth t t knownassuredlye meano d n an ,e leas y yb th s t interesting, of the buildings named are the little mansions of Ravens- nook and Uttershill, both locally known as castles. The former stands almost hidden among dense woods e latte th conspicuoua ; s i r s object from the road that leads out of Penicuik for Peebles and the south. Ravensnook Castle stand mosa n i st romantic situation overlooking a widk valleEs e ye swee th fro e highef mpth o r ground e wholth ; e countryside is now covered by the plantations of the policies of Penicuik e ruine House verth e w closth ar d syno o t e an long, d an abandoned carriage-drive e thaPeeblee lodgth th t n t eo comea s t ou s road. Separated only by a field is the curiously planned obelisk which Sir James Clerk (builder of Penicuik House) erected to the memory of Allan Ramsa 1759n yi . The name evidently suggested to Scott the well-known line: Rest the Castln ei e Ravensheuch. (Lay of the Last Minstrel: VI. xxiii. 2.) structuree th o S 1 localle sar y termed t the,bu y were merel housee yth inconsiderablf so e lairds. CASTLES OF RAVENSNOO UTTERSHILLD KAN , MIDLOTHIAN3 23 . A rolf Davio l . (1329-71II d ) record a cartas , give Elizabety b n h Auldburgh, of the lands of Braid, Baulay, Colmanstoun, and Ravinis- nuick, to John Burgens Virgin.1 The document is not dated. In 1527 James V. granted to William Sinclare de Rosling (with much else) "Esti t Westie r r Ravinnisnuke t Carnehille , partibusm cu , , le outsettis, tenentibus, &c."2 In 1542 he confirms and gives anew, inter alia, " terra Eistie sd t Westie r r Ravynnysnuk t Carnehille m cu , partibus, &c., ortis, pomeriis, columbariis, tenentibus, &c."3 The further particulars e confirmatiogiveth n i n n seem ratheo t r suggest that some development had been going on at Ravensnook sinc ee characte1527 Th e existinth . f o r g ruins would perhaps suit this date. These entries appea givo t rsuppor o e locaen th lo t ttraditio n that Ravensnoo s onc e propertkwa th e f Oliveyo r Sinclair e favouritth , f o e opponend Jame an e Reformation . th sV f s captureo t e wa th o y db wh , English at Solway Moss in 1542. That he owned Ravensnook is stated as a fact in the first Statistical Account.* The idea may have originated from the circumstance that another Oliver Sinclair undoubtedly occupied Ravensnook. Oliver Sinclair "de Wester Ravynnisnuke" appears as the second witness to a document by which James VI. confirms a charter of Edward Sinclare de Harbertschyre granting to his germane brother William Sinclair the barony, castle, lands, etc., of Rosling, and also "terras de Eister et Wester Ravynnisnuke et Carnehill, cum tenentibus," as well as other property.9 n 159I 4 Oliver Sinclai f Ravensnooo r s cautiowa k r £10,00fo n r 0fo r WilliaSi m Sinclai f Roslino r answeo gt r befor e kincouncild th e gan . Relations between the two branches of the family were far from what might have been n hoped160i 4d Johan , n Fairli f Comistouo e s wa n surety for Sir William Sinclair of Rosling not to do bodily harm to his tenant, Oliver Sinclai f Ravensnook.o r 6 In 1730 Sir John Clerk, the famous antiquary (d. 1755), secured from e Sinclairth f Rosslyo s e superioritnth f Ravensnookyo , whose actual r som sois familfo hi led yearha y s possessed t I stil. l belonge th o t s Clerks, absorbed inte Penicuioth k policies. Of the actual building at Ravensnook most disappointingly little survives. It met, during the eighteenth century, the fate that has over- 1 Registrum Magni Sigilli Beguin Scotorum, vol. 1306-1424, ed. John Maitland Thomson, . 1402 . 607No Appp ,, .2 . 2 Ibid., vol. 1513-46 . 527 . 117p No , . Ibid., 2768 . 640-1. pp No , . 1 Ed. by Sir John Sinclair, 1794, vol. x. p. 425. 5 Beg. Mag. Sig., vol. 1580-93 . 190-1 . 615pp , No , . ' Joh . WilsonnJ , Annals of Penicuik, Edinburgh, Constable, printed privately. , 189136 . p , 234 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , APRI , 19289 L . take mananciene o ns th f yo t monument f Scotlandso , including Arthur's O'on. The circumstances are given in an account written by Sir John Clerk himselyeae th r n i 1741f : " I have seen Kavensnook Tower o 0 4 r 5 0s againsfeewa y inclinatiott i m thigh d an , s pullen wa tha t di t down; but as my father, who wanted stones for the park dyke, found her readiese eth t provision I submitted, e towe Th f Penicui.o r s wa k pulle de sam stonedowd th ha en o readinesn I accounti s f i t bu I s, would repair them both. Old houses and Towers are, I think, the Honour and pride of a country."1 The hous s smallwa e , abou fee0 6 t t lond probablan g t morno y e than about a third as much in width. Its remaining Avails are nowhere ove fee6 rheightn o anyoni t t d an ,e wit o interesn h n antiquitiei t s it might appear a most insignificant ruin. It bears little mark of date, but seems clearly to belong to the sixteenth century. It is constructed of the local, gritty, nearly-black whinstone (usually employe r dykesfo d n gooi t ) rougbu d h rubble masonry ,e block somth f eo s quite large, thoxig hproperlo thern e ear y worked quoins. It is rather remarkable for the variety in the thickness • of its walls, the west one being only just over 3 feet, the north one 4, and the east, which was evidently full of mural chambers, over 7 feet. No traces of the south wall appear above ground. Thick and rather clumsy walls are inevitable with such a material;. no worked detail is possible. There are two distinct portions, not regularly bonded together, though therindicatioo n differency s i e an f o n e eas agen i eTh a t. pard ha t tunnel vault of rubble on the same axis as that of the building, but only about 12 feet long. (This was always a favourite way of covering a basement in Scotland; at Whim House, Peeblesshire, it occurs in buildin e latth e f eighteento g h century. e nortth n hI )wall , closo t e the north-east corner of the building, is a water inlet, commonly found in sixteenth-century workchambee Th . r abov vaule extendes eth wa t d into the east wall by one of these mural recesses which are at all periods far more usual in Scotland than further to the south. The wallin completelo s s gi y ruinous tha s characteit t quits i r e uncertain. The halpresumabls lwa westere th n yi n portion y detaio n an t f lo ,bu kind is to be seen. As John Wilson in his Annals of Penicuik mentions two gables 57 feet apart, it seems possible that originally there were storeyo tw s wit attin ha c above. Large beec growinw h no tree e gar s within the area of the tower, whose scanty remains are rapidly dis- integrating. Fro mshora t distanc t lookei s little more tha nheaa f po stones. 1 Memoirs of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, ed. for Scottish History Society, 1892, p. 253, note. CASTLE RAVENSNOOF SO UTTERSHILLD KAN , MIDLOTHIAN5 23 . Nor awayfa t , probabl sighn yi t befor e plantationth e s were made, is the Castle of Uttershill or Outershill, whose ruins are far better preserved, and the tower houses are so similar that the original appearanc f Ravensnooo e y probablma k e largelyb y restored froa m study of Uttershill. Although, till about twenty years ago, in the parish of Lasswade t i stand, s practicall e towth f Penicuiko nn yi , higp u h n Castlo k e abovEs Brae e th e , looking northwards ovee wholth r e settlement, with the Pentlands rising beyond—a perfectly magnificent view.