Thirlestane Castle

Castle Hill at Lauder carried a violent history long before Thirlestane rose on it. A large fort or castle stood there before the 13th century, and the site held the ancient church of Lauder, where in 1482 the favourites of James III — among them the architect Robert Cochrane — were dragged out by envious nobles led by Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus, and hanged from the earlier Lauder Bridge. The old kirk stood some sixty yards from what is now the castle's west front, the bridge a quarter-mile to the north-east.

The earlier castle passed to Robert Lauder of that Ilk, who gave it in dowry to his daughter Alison and her husband George Wedderhede in 1532. The couple and their son were all murdered in feuds, Alison in 1547, and the lands presumably reverted to her parents, who died in the second half of 1567 leaving only young grandchildren as heirs.

During the war with England known as the Rough Wooing, the site was occupied by a large English artillery fort and garrison. Designed by Thomas Pettit, Surveyor of Calais, it was begun on 5 April 1548 by Sir Robert Bowes, estimated at £296 and four weeks' work, with Hugh Willoughby as its captain. In June 1550 the villagers of Lauderdale and beyond were summoned to demolish the fort and haul the remaining artillery to Hume Castle.

The Cranstouns sold Castle Hill on 27 January 1587 to Sir John Maitland, Secretary of Scotland and younger brother of William Maitland of Lethington, Secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots. By 22 March he was already "busily occupied with his masons at the building of his house in the Fort of Lauder", raising a large square keep on the foundations and walls of the English fort. The new house replaced the family's original but decaying Old Thirlestane Castle, a peel tower a mile or so to the south-east, whose ruins still stand near the hamlet of Thirlestane.

In 1590 Sir John was appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland and ennobled as Lord Maitland of Thirlestane. James VI visited several times — in February 1591 to celebrate the wedding of Maitland's niece to the Laird of Lugton, and again in October 1593. After Maitland's death on 3 October 1595 his widow Jean Fleming married the Earl of Cassilis, and the pair hosted the king at the castle on 22 February 1599.

Lord Maitland's son John was created 1st Earl of Lauderdale in 1624, and his grandson John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale (1616–1682), became one of the most important Scottish figures of the late 17th century, appointed Secretary of State for Scotland in 1660 with unrivalled power and influence. He employed the architect Sir William Bruce to transform the castle into a residence fit for conducting the affairs of state: between 1670 and 1676 the two front towers and the grand staircase were added, and the interiors remade into lavish staterooms with magnificent plasterwork ceilings.

Lauderdale had Bruce keep much of the older fabric, giving the castle an external aura of antiquity while the rooms inside met the height of seventeenth-century fashion — the family's ancient seat and a thoroughly modern residence in one. After his death, his widow Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale, wrote of how much he had preferred Thirlestane to Lethington and had thought it better to settle his family there; he had even considered burial in Lauder Kirk.

In quieter times the castle became a Scottish country mansion for the Earls of Lauderdale. In 1840 the Edinburgh architects David Bryce and William Burn designed two large wings flanking the central keep and a south wing around a central courtyard, housing new kitchens, pantries, laundries and servants' quarters. During the Second World War Thirlestane housed St Hilary's, a girls' school evacuated from Edinburgh: the 15th Earl and Countess lived in the north wing while dormitories filled the upper floors and the great dining room served as dining hall and assembly hall, until the school returned to Edinburgh at the end of 1944.

Captain Gerald Maitland-Carew inherited the castle in 1972 from his maternal grandmother Ethel, Countess of Lauderdale, finding it in serious disrepair. In 1984 it passed to a charitable trust and major repairs followed, aided by grants from the Historic Buildings Council and the National Heritage Memorial Fund. Open to the public in its parkland, Thirlestane is noted for fine collections of paintings, furniture, porcelain and a historic toy collection.