02/03/2024
Coo's View is not far from here......
Hume Castle.
The existing castle seen at Hume today dates from 1794 and is little more than an 18th century folly constructed on the site of the original stronghold of the Home (Hume) family by Sir Hugh Hume of Polwarth, 3rd Earl of Marchmont after buying the Barony of Home from Alexander Home, 10th Earl of Home in 1789.
There are scant remains of an earlier structure and well within the folly walls that are believed to be all that remains of the Hume's original castle.
In the year 1214 the Barony and estate of Home were granted to William of Greenlaw and his new wife and cousin Ada daughter of Patrick, Earl of Dunbar. William and his wife Ada then took on the estate name Hume (Home) as their own.
The estate occupies a substantial portion of the Merse Lands (March Lands), a low lying district that sits between the Lammermuir Hills to the north and the River Tweed to the south, the Borders town of Duns lies about 7 kilometres to the northeast and Kelso is about 7 kilometres to the south.
The village that once thrived here has been noted as one of the largest medieval settlements in southeast Scotland, it also includes a church dating to the 12th century, Hume Old Parish Church dedicated to St Nicholas, this church is thought to have been built on the remains of a much earlier structure owing to the finding of an ecclesiastical bell nearby dating to between 600~900AD, all that remains of the old church is a burial aisle of the Hume family known locally as the Earls Aisle, the remainder of the church was destroyed by Cromwell's New Model Army around about 1651.
Hume Castle may have begun its life as an earthwork and timber castle sometime around the 13th century but by the 14th century the Home's fortification had evolved into a more substantial Castle of Enclosure with a round tower at the entrance and at the north wall, Hume was noted as a rare and early example of a rectangular castle built in southern Scotland and before the advent of gunpowder one of the strongest castles in Scotland.
The defences were once more extended and strengthened in order to repel an attack by artillery between the 15th and 17th centuries.
