One of Scotland's oldest stone castles, its Hepburn owners bound it to the dramatic final days of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Hailes Castle stands on a slope above the River Tyne in East Lothian, and is reckoned one of the oldest surviving stone castles in Scotland. Hugo de Gourlay raised the first fortified tower here before 1300, guarding a strategic crossing, and the building grew over the centuries that followed: a thirteenth-century curtain wall, a fourteenth-century keep, and a substantial square West Tower added by Sir Patrick Hepburn in the fifteenth century. It was the Hepburn family who held the castle through its most eventful years, having secured the Lordship of Hailes by Crown charter in 1451; James IV visited in 1507. The stronghold saw plenty of violence. It turned back an assault led by Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy in 1400, while in 1443 an attack by Archibald Dunbar ended in a massacre of those within. In 1567 James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, brought Mary, Queen of Scots here shortly before the Battle of Carberry Hill. Cromwell’s forces partly slighted the castle in 1650, and it slid into decline thereafter, eventually passing to the Dalrymple family. Since 1926 it has been in state care, and is today managed by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.
What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.
What to look for
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The square West Tower, a donjon added by Sir Patrick Hepburn in the fifteenth century
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A vaulted basement holding a bakehouse and brewhouse
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A fifteenth-century chamber with an ambry and piscina, thought to have served as a chapel
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The thirteenth-century curtain wall, among the earliest of its kind in Scotland
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The riverside setting above the River Tyne, once guarding the route below
Plan your visit
- Location
- General area near East Lothian, East Lothian
This is a sensitive or fragile site, so we show only its general area. Please check official heritage sources for access before visiting, and take care not to disturb it.
Nearby places
Settlement · Prehistoric
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East Lothian
The hill was already a place of burial by around 1500 BC and shows evidence of occupation and ramparts after 1000 BC; the ramparts were rebuilt and…
- Near East Linton
- 25 min walk from car park
- Some walking
Fortified place · Medieval
Yester Castle
East Lothian
Its subterranean Goblin Ha' is a rare surviving example of medieval Gothic vaulting, wrapped in centuries of local legend about its wizard builder.
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