Hailes Castle

Hailes was founded as a fortified tower house by Hugo de Gourlay before 1300, reckoned one of the oldest constructions of its kind in Scotland. It sits on a promontory of the River Tyne, blocking that strategic route and preying on the route to Edinburgh, and the superiority of its lands was held by the Earls of Dunbar and March.

The de Gourlays were a Northumbrian family. They supported the English in the Wars of Independence, and their land was forfeited by order of the Scottish Crown. Hailes Castle and its lands were then confirmed upon another Northumbrian, Sir Adam de Hepburn, dead before 1371, who in the reign of David II held a charter of Traprain and of Southalls and Northalls — since united and called Hailes — in Haddingtonshire, along with Mersingtoun, Cockburnspath and Rollanstoun in Berwickshire.

In 1400 the castle withstood an attack by Harry Hotspur Percy, in league with the Earl of March; the attackers were afterwards defeated in a counter-attack led by Archibald, Master of Douglas. A successful attack by Archibald Dunbar in 1443 was followed by a massacre of the castle's inhabitants.

On 20 December 1451 Sir Patrick Hepburn, 1st Lord Hailes, had a Crown charter of the Lordship of Hailes and of the other lands his predecessors had held in heritage of the Earls of March, together with Prendergast above Ayton and further holdings in the sheriffdom of Berwick, and all rights in the lands forfeited by George Dunbar, Earl of March — the whole erected into a free barony to be called the Barony of Hailes. He was one of the conservators of truces with England in 1449, 1451–7 and 1459. He is thought to have extended the castle dramatically: a massive tower of at least four storeys west of the original work, and a lower tower to the east, forming a long north range above the Tyne. The thick curtain wall may date back to the 13th century. Following a visit to Whitekirk, James IV came to Hailes on 19 October 1507 and gave a 'drinksilver' tip to the masons at work on the building.

In July 1547 John Lord Borthwick was made keeper of the 'place and fortalice of Halis', undertaking to hold it 'surlie fra our auld ynemies of Ingland and all uthairis'. He agreed to render the house only to Regent Arran, and not to the Earl of Bothwell or to any of the Hepburn name; if the English came, Arran promised to send 24 horsemen to defend it.

After the battle of Pinkie, Lord Grey of Wilton occupied Hailes for the English, taking possession on 21 February 1548 and writing that 'the house is for the bigness of such excellent beauty within, as I have seldom seen any England except the King's Majesty's, and of very good strength'. Hugh Douglas of Longniddry became keeper in English pay. Arran retook the castle and slighted it by removing the iron gates, or yetts, in August 1548.

James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, gave the nearby property of Nether Hailes to his wife Jean Gordon in June 1566. He entertained Mary, Queen of Scots, at Hailes Castle in 1567, shortly before the battle of Carberry Hill. All his lands, Hailes among them, were later forfeited to the Scottish Crown. Oliver Cromwell partly slighted the building in 1650, after the battle of Dunbar.

Hailes later passed into the hands of the Stewarts, then the Setons, and finally, in 1700, the Dalrymple of Hailes family. By the mid-19th century the castle was in use as a granary, Sir David Dalrymple having taken advantage of the more settled times to move his family to the mansion of Newhailes.

Since 1926 the ruin has been held under a state-sponsored guardianship agreement, now under the auspices of Historic Environment Scotland, and it is a scheduled monument. The land next to the castle is open to the public without charge, though in 2020 the interior was closed off with high security fencing on safety grounds. The castle was put up for sale by auction in April 2024.