| Whittingehame Tower | |
|---|---|
 | |
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| General information | |
| Location | East Lothian |
| Town or city | East Linton |
| Country | Scotland |
| Coordinates | 55°57′02″N2°38′18″W / 55.95055°N 2.63847°W /55.95055; -2.63847 |
Whittingehame Tower, orWhittingehame Castle, is a fifteenth-centurytower house about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south ofEast Linton, on the west bank of Whittinghame Water inEast Lothian, Scotland.[1]
Whittingehame Tower was built on lands belonging to the CospatrickEarls of March. In the 14th century the lands were acquired by theDouglases. During the reign ofMary, Queen of Scots, they were held byJames Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton. The property subsequently passed through the hands of theSetons,Hays and Balfours ofBalbirnie, who occupy the castle still.Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905, belonged to this family.[1]
Whittingehame Tower is an alteredL-plankeep, comprising a rectangular main block and small stair-wing.[2] It has aparapet which iscorbelled out, with rounded corners.[1] There is acap-house, which was used as adovecote in the 1930s.[2] There is a vaulted basement. The hall, on the first floor, is panelled; its ceiling is finely plastered. The entrance is by the stair-wing. Some of the windows have been enlarged.[1] The hall now houses a collection of documents and old prints.[1] The tower is a category Alisted building, the highest level of protection for a historic building in Scotland.[3]
Until the early 20th-century there was a raised terrace close to the tower reached by steps, overlooking the famous Whittinghame yew tree. This was probably a garden feature built byJames Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton who is known to have constructed gardens atAberdour Castle andLochleven Castle or one of his successors.[4] The platform has sometimes been interpreted as a defensive feature for deploying artillery.
According toRegent Morton's "Confession", in 1567 Morton, theEarl of Bothwell, the future husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, andWilliam Maitland of Lethington, the queen's secretary, were entertained at Whittinghame by the owner, Archibald Douglas.[5][6] Maitland was the laird of Whittingehame's brother-in-law.[7]
It is said that they conferred together in the shelter of ayew tree in the grounds to plot the murder ofHenry Stewart, Lord Darnley, Queen Mary's unpopular and increasingly estranged husband.[8] Morton, just returned fromexile inEngland after the murder ofDavid Rizzio, was unenthusiastic, and requested the queen's direct guidance. Despite the queen's reluctance to give the matter her sanction, the plot put together at Whittingehame was put into effect in due course.[9]
Mary's half-brother, theEarl of Moray, was received at Whittingehame by Morton and Lethington about 18 months later, and they concurred with his expression of horror at the murder of Darnley. Bothwell was by then an outlaw.[9] Moray certainly stayed at Whittingehame on 12 August 1567.[10]
The firstcider gum (Eucalyptus gunnii) in Great Britain is said to have been planted in the grounds of the castle in 1853, and to have survived for over one hundred years.[11]