Dunbar Castle

The eastern coast of Scotland, from Berwick to the mouth of the Frith of Forth , is bound round with a barrier of inaccessible rocks and shoals, which rendered the few harbours it affords places of the utmost consequence, from an early period of Scottish history. That of Dunbar, though capable only of receiving small vessels, was farther made important by the vicinity of a very strong castle, which, built within the sea -mark upon several rocks, connected together by for fortifications, was, before the invention of gunpowder, esteemed almost impregnable. Very little now remains of what was, in former years, an extensive as well as a formidable castle. The Earl of March , who commanded Berwick for the Scottish, surrendered after the loss of the battle, became anew the liegeman of John Baliol, or rather of England, and engaged himself to repair his castle of Dunbar, and garrison it, for the English. This was in 1333 ; but in 1334, Cospatrick had quit the English cause once more, and with open solemnity renounced his allegiance to Edward III ., as he advanced with a mighty army into Scotland in the autumn of that year. The Earl himself kept the field with the Regent of Scotland, and did gallant service . In the meantime, his castle of Dunbar had perhaps its most brilliant epoch. This stronghold was left by the earl under the command of his heroic countess, Agnes Randolph, daughter of the celebrated Randolph, Earl of Moray, and grand-niece of Robert Bruce. She was well known at the period, and is still dear to popular tradition, by the name of Black Agnes of Dunbar. This heroine, at a time when almost all the fortresses in the South of Scotland were subdued by the enemy, defended Dunbar with a zeal and magnanimity worthy the illustrious blood which flowed in her veins.