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Historic Scotland
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Black and ominous guarding the Firth of Clyde,
Dumbarton Rock from Newark.
On the north shore of the Clyde, south of Dumbarton town centre, off minor roads S of A814 and A82.
Dumbarton from Dun Breatan, Fort of the Britons.
Built upon a twin peaked volcanic plug which oversees the Firth of Clyde, only a 14thC portcullis arch and some portions of the guard house remain of the mediaeval Royal castle of Dumbarton. The remaining structure is essentially a military fortress of the 18th & 19th centuries.
From the south bank at Finlaystone.
Dumbarton has been fortified since at least as early as the 5thC, when St Patrick wrote to the subjects of Ceretic, King of Alcluith, castigating them for a piratical raid on his Irish converts.
It was the capital of the kingdom of Strathclyde, the nation of the Britons, and was besieged on several occasions. In 756 a combined force of Picts and Northumbrians took the castle, only to be annihilated themselves a few days later. The buildings on the rock were burned in 780, though it is not certain whether this was a result of hostile activity.
In 870 a Viking attack led by Olaf the White of Dublin and Ivar the One-Legged led to a four-month siege. They severed the water supply and starved the occupants to submission. The castle was plundered for its wealth and people, 200 longships carrying the booty to Dublin. This marked the demise of the Britons.
They returned to strength in the 10thC, and extended their territory southwards. In 1018 following the death of Owen the Bald last king of the Britons at the Battle of Carham, Malcolm 2 of Scots was able to set his grandson Duncan upon the British throne. When Duncan succeeded to the Scots throne in 1034, Strathclyde was finally integrated into the Scottish kingdom.
View east from the summit, upstream to Glasgow.
The rocky patch in the foreground
is the supposed site of the 'White Tower'.
Later in the 11thc, during Malcolm Canmore's reign, it is mentioned as 'Castello Arturius'
Little is then heard of Dumbarton until in 1222 the burgh charter mentions the new castle. Dumbarton at this time was of significant importance as it guarded the western approaches to the realm from the Viking territories of the Isles and west highlands. Until their defeat at the battle of Largs in 1263, the territory of the Norsemen came as close as Kilcreggan on the Roseneath peninsula, where it is likely that a Norse watch tower occupied the site of what is now Craigrownie Castle. (About 6 miles as the crow flies, or the longboat sails!)
It is also around this time that it mentioned again as 'Arthur's Castle', although since the 19thc this reference became transposed on OS maps to the mound thought now to represent Cardross Manor, Bruce's deathplace.
View west from the summit.
The site of Cardross Manor is to the right of the park.
From these early years it is evident that Dumbarton was a Royal castle, and as such was a target of Edward 1 in his invasion of 1296. He subsequently installed sympathetic Governors, such as Sir John Mentieth, the captor of The Wallace in 1305. Legend asserts that Wallace was brought here as a prisoner prior to his departure for London, though most authorities think this unlikely.
In 1333, in the aftermath of the Battle of Halidon Hill, the Scots sent their young king David 2 and his queen Joanna of England to reside here for security. At this point Edward Balliol was attempting to regain his father’s former realm for himself, with English support. Dumbarton although on the west coast was then to become Scottish royalty’s accustomed embarkation point for the safety of France, and the young couple departed in early 1334.
As a Royal castle under the care of the rebellious Earl of Lennox in 1489, it was again besieged by the young James 4 himself, the castle being occupied by Lord Darnley, the Earls heir. The siege failed as the garrison burnt the burgh, but James returned the same year and was successful. He may have utilised the great bombard “Mons Meg” in the assault.
The castle remained at the centre of national events, when in 1514, during the minority of James V, and in the aftermath of Flodden, it was held by the Lord Erskine for the Queen Mother. The Earl of Lennox captured it at this time on behalf of the opposing faction led by the Earl of Arran. The assailants had tunnelled below the north entrance and stormed the garrison.
View north from the summit, up the River Leven
to Ben Lomond and the highlands.
A year later the Duke of Albany arrived at the castle from France to take up his duties as Governor of the Realm. As the late king’s cousin he had been invited to take up the role as a neutral, and immediately arrested Lennox, installing a garrison of Frenchmen. He thereafter used Dumbarton as his regular port of departure to France. In 1523 he arrived with a large French force with the intention of invading England, but the plan was never followed through due to inconsistent support from the Scots. He left the following year with his troops and never returned. The divided Scots nobles squabbled over the castle and control passed amongst the various parties, until James V regained it as a base for several sorties to the west.
In 1548 it again had a royal resident, as the young Queen Mary was brought to the castle to protect her from the effects of the “Rough Wooing” of Henry 8th. She left for France within 5 months, where she married the Dauphin, heir apparent to the throne. She returned to visit (didn’t she visit everywhere?) in 1563. Her Governor of the castle was the Lord Fleming of Cumbernauld, who had fled with her to England after Langside in 1568. He returned in 1570 to be besieged in the castle by the Regent Moray. The arrival of a French fleet and the murder of Moray relieved him within a few weeks.
Fleming held the castle for the Queen until 1571, when Captain Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill took it for the young James 6th, his assault is recorded in detail.
The castle, across Leven from Dumbarton.
Leaving Glasgow an hour before sunset on the evening of the 31st March, Crawford and about a hundred men carried ladders and ropes with iron hooks. They were armed with muskets. By 1a.m they halted a mile from the castle, and bound their guns to their backs, and crossed what was then marshland to the north-east curtain wall, at the highest point of the cliff where attack would be least suspected. Climbing by stages they reached the base of the wall at dawn, and as the first of the assailants crossed the walltops, a sentry raised the alarm. The garrison awoke and were attacked by Crawford’s men. Three died, and the remainder fled. Crawford established his forces on the area known as the Beak, the summit of the eastern peak, and when no counter attack developed used the castles own artillery against the remaining garrison strong points. Most of the garrison fled, some captured, but the Lord Fleming made his escape by sea. Archbishop Hamilton of St Andrews, one of the exiled Queens staunchest supporters was captured, and later tried and executed.
The castle changed hands several times during the Covenanting period, and the Civil War. It sustained much damage, and required extensive repair by the time extension and improvement work was begun in 1675.
Thereafter the castle functioned mostly as a state prison, with a few noble inmates, until it regained some strategic importance as a military installation in the Jacobite years. From then on military buildings and gun batteries obliterated the mediaeval castle, as its role continued through the Napoleonic wars and into the 19thC. It was used as a military prison throughout this period. The constructions of that time represent the bulk of what we see today. It remained in use as a military installation until World war 2, when two bombs were dropped on it during the raids on Clydebank.
Historic Scotland, 01389 732167, open daily year round, closed Thursday afternoons and Fridays, October to March.
Other names; Alcluith, Alt Clut; Clyde Rock
For more pics,
http://www.darkisle....on/dbarton.html
http://argo.panorami...d/dumbarton.jpg
http://www.scottiela...arton/index.htm Click the thumbnails at this site for bigger pics.
http://www.rampantsc...itdumbarton.htm
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