page_title: Dirleton Castle
section_title: The keep
hierarchical_section_title: Dirleton Castle / Description / The keep
caption_attribution_description: Dirleton Castle, East Lothian, Scotland. Vaulted cellars beneath the 14th century east range.
context_page_description: Dirleton Castle is a medieval fortress in the village of Dirleton, East Lothian, Scotland. It lies around 2 miles west of North Berwick, and around 19 miles east of Edinburgh. The oldest parts of the castle date to the 13th century, and it was abandoned by the end of the 17th century.
  Begun in around 1240 by John De Vaux, the castle was heavily damaged during the Wars of Scottish Independence, when it was twice taken by the English. In the 14th century, Dirleton was repaired by the Haliburton family, and it was acquired by the Ruthvens in 1505. The Ruthvens were involved in several plots against Mary, Queen of Scots, and King James VI, and eventually forfeited the castle in 1600. Dirleton ceased to be a residence, although Oliver Cromwell was forced to besiege the castle to flush out a band of "mosstroopers", during the Third English Civil War in 1650. The damaged castle was then acquired by John Nisbet, Lord Dirleton, who decided to build a new country house on the nearby Archerfield Estate. The Nisbet family of Dirleton continued to maintain the castle's gardens, before handing Dirleton into state care in 1923.
context_section_description: The keep, or donjon, survives largely intact from the 13th century, and forms the south-west part of the present castle. Described by architectural historian W. D. Simpson as a "cluster keep", it comprises a large round tower to the south, a smaller round tower to the west, with the two joined by a square tower. The masonry is of squared ashlar, or dressed stone blocks. Internally, the original use of the rooms is difficult to interpret, although the round towers may have served as private suites for Lord Dirleton and his Lady. The large tower contains a six-sided chamber at ground level, possibly a kitchen, with a seven-sided main chamber above. This room has a pointed vaulted ceiling, window seats in the large windows around the south wall, and a carved fireplace at the north. To the east is a postern, or side door, and beyond is a well. Adjacent to the well is a floor hatch, which would have allowed food to be transferred directly from the kitchen to a servery above. A room in the square tower to the west, possibly the lord's bedroom, has holes in the ceiling to allow smoke from braziers to escape. The more ruined west round tower probably contained another hall, with chambers above and storage below. In the 17th century, the top of the main round tower was lowered and remodelled to form a gun platform.
  Only fragments of the rest of the 13th-century castle remain. A fourth tower, where the Ruthven lodging now stands, may have completed the "cluster keep". Bases of round towers at the south-east and north-east corners of the castle are visible below the later walls. Parts of the north-west wall are 13th-century work, as is the blocked postern in the basement of the east range. The overall plan of the castle, however, was not greatly changed through later rebuilding work. Dirleton is the earliest dated example in Scotland of a castle with round towers that project beyond the curtain wall, as opposed to those at Dunstaffnage, for example, where the towers are contained within the walls. This new form was subsequently used in other 13th-century Scottish castles, including Bothwell and Kildrummy.
caption: Vaulted basement of the east range
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