Hermitage Castle, Scotland

We explore the isolated eerie ruins sitting in the wild and remote hills of Liddesdale between Scotland and England. The lands in which this castle sits on were once the hotspot and heart of the middle march which was known as the bloodiest valley in Britain.

The castle has a reputation for being haunted by folklore tales and soaks itself inside the mighty stone walls with its turbulent history, full of murder, mystery, treason and intrigue, so join us as we discover the site of Hermitage Castle.

For most of it’s 400 year existence, the castle here was the key to controlling the Scottish middle march, it was often fought over time and time again, even its building brought Scotland and England to brink of war. Its location, although beautiful to us now, lies in a bare and windswept area really not far from the borders of England. Hermitage Castle may not be the largest or finest castle in Scotland, but it is without question the most intimidating. After all, it needed to be. Guarding “the bloodiest valley in Britain”, the Castle stood at the centre of constant cross-border and internal warfare along the Scottish-English border, a cycle that forged in blood the identities of many Borders families on both sides such as the Elliot’s, Scott’s and Douglas’s.

I love the shape in which this castle takes, The property belonged to the Dacres, who had a stronghold here in the 13th century, but passed to the Soulis family, who strengthened the castle. One of the families (probably William or possibly Sir Richard, his father) was said to be a man of ill repute and to have been practising witchcraft. Many local children were reputedly seized by Soulis and never seen again.

Neither Scots nor English law held much sway in the Borders, with infamous bands of reivers, best thought of as inland pirates, wreaking havoc wherever they went. Reiving reached its height in the 16th century, and many captured reivers were weakened in Hermitage Castle’s pit prison. The brutality of the reivers was quite shocking, they often were involved in cattle rustling, feuding, murder, arson and pillaging which were all common occurrences.

The structure of the castle started with the building of a rectangular house which was at least three storeys high. The upper of the two floors compromised of two halls, complete with small chambers at their eastern ends. Towers were added to three of the four corners which provided living chambers at the upper levels with a prison and a second well just underneath. Finally though, a fourth tower was added and this contained the residential quarters of the Douglas lords and family, complete with a large kitchen on the ground floor.

When the Douglas’s remodelled the castle, the courtyard and the cellars of the Dacre residence were converted into a three cellar storage area. The floors added above the cellar housed two halls, but one above the other. There are narrow window slits in the lower hall, that might suggest that it was more a common hall where the household ate and a small chamber to it’s east would have been used by the castles constable controlling the access in and out of the castle and of course being in close proximity to the prison and the portcullis machinery over the postern gate.

Just a quarter of mile away are the remains of a chapel, inside its graveyard. The chapel has a simple rectangle plan and appears to date from the late 1200’s to the early 1300’s, it was more than likely that the chapel served the de sules first residence at Hermitage, pretty ruinous and empty, but a reminder of it’s history.

The walls at the castle overpower and tower above you, it makes quite the intimating stance and it doesn’t feel welcome at all. Yet once you step inside the weathered remains you will be amazed at the awe-inspiring views hidden inside this castle. There really is something quite sinister, yet romantic about Hermitage that makes for such a great explore, even better with it’s location as it’s quite isolated but makes it even exciting as you’ll more than likely be the only ones there, which helps with it’s haunted and ominous vibes.

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Till Next Time!