Hermitage Castle

01 / The documented castle

Power at the heart of Liddesdale

Hermitage’s position mattered because Liddesdale mattered. This was a centre of power in the Scottish Middle March, one of the frontier districts where authority had to be asserted across difficult country. A formidable residence could advertise lordship while helping its owners control the surrounding valley. The quiet setting today can make that strategic purpose easy to overlook.

Historic Environment Scotland traces Hermitage’s early story to the de Soules family, while leaving questions about the location of the first residence. The surviving fortress took shape later. Sir Hugh de Dacre built here in the fourteenth century; William, first Earl of Douglas, then transformed the stronghold. What looks like one uncompromising structure belongs to successive ambitions.

Defences adapted again for firearms in the sixteenth century. After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the frontier’s political significance changed and Hermitage’s military role declined. Its eventual ruin belongs to that longer shift, rather than to one neatly documented final catastrophe.

02 / Reading the building

A fortress built in layers

HES’s detailed assessment distinguishes reddish, carefully dressed stone associated with the Dacre building from the coarser masonry of later Douglas work. Look for those changes before imagining the castle fully furnished. Walls that appear continuous from a distance can preserve different building campaigns, alterations and repairs when examined more closely.

The great rectangular mass incorporates corner towers, while high arches and projecting supports recall a timber defensive gallery that has disappeared. The original western entrance stood at first-floor level and was protected by two portcullises. Entry was a controlled process, designed to keep an approaching visitor at a disadvantage.

Inside, lost floors leave rooms open above one another, and their precise uses are not all settled. The larger south-west tower contained important accommodation; a pit prison occupied the north-east tower. Nineteenth-century restoration also reshaped parts of the ruin. A doorway or wall-top should therefore be read as surviving evidence with a history of its own, rather than an untouched medieval scene.

03 / A royal journey

Mary’s ride to the injured Bothwell

In October 1566, Mary, Queen of Scots, was conducting business at Jedburgh when her supporter, the Earl of Bothwell, was wounded in a Border encounter. She rode roughly twenty-five miles to see him at Hermitage and returned the same day. HES records that she became gravely ill around her return. The journey was demanding; a confident medical diagnosis across the centuries would go further than the evidence permits.

Later accusations treated the ride as evidence of an existing affair. HES’s account of Mary’s life explicitly says there is no evidence for that claim, although she married Bothwell seven months afterwards. Calling him her secret lover during this visit turns a disputed interpretation into a fact.

The Mary Queen of Scots Visitor Centre in Jedburgh offers useful context through objects, portraits and interpretation of her life and reputation. Live Borders presents her stay in the town as a turning point, helping place the Hermitage journey within the wider pressures on her reign.

04 / The central legend

Lord Soulis and the blood-red cap

Scottish Paranormal’s 2024 article retells the castle’s most disturbing tradition. In it, a cruel Lord de Soulis practises sorcery and has a supernatural protector called Redcap. The creature’s cap is coloured by blood, and its master is supposedly protected against ordinary weapons. The story gives human cruelty a monstrous companion.

The legend ends with local people overcoming Soulis at Ninestane Rig. Lead and a cauldron defeat the protection that steel and rope could not break. This is a tale of tyranny and violent retribution, not a verified account of an execution at the stone circle.

Castle historian Martin Coventry records uncertainty over whether the villain represents William de Soulis or his father, Richard. He also notes a different possible fate: imprisonment at Dumbarton. Those variations matter. A familiar name, a real castle and a real place in the landscape can anchor a powerful story without establishing the events it describes.

05 / Reports attached to the ruins

The figure at the window and other echoes

The Scottish Paranormal article also preserves an anonymous account of restoration workers seeing a figure at an inaccessible upper window. No workers are named, and no date or original statement accompanies the story. Its proposed identification with de Soulis remains especially uncertain because the surviving building largely postdates his period.

Coventry records further traditions: a ghost identified as Alexander Ramsay within the castle and a white-clad Mary outside. His account connects Ramsay with a historical dispute over the sheriffdom of Teviotdale, imprisonment by William Douglas and death through starvation. That narrative provides the reported haunting with a recognisable identity; it does not authenticate a later apparition.

These accounts are best encountered with their different levels of detail intact. An unnamed figure is still unnamed, even when a famous owner seems to fit. For a visitor who notices something unusual, a precise description of the position, light and circumstances is more useful than choosing a character from the legends first.

06 / Beyond the walls

A chapel, old boundaries and a Romantic afterlife

Hermitage’s protected landscape extends beyond the standing castle. The scheduled-monument record includes a ruined chapel to the west, enclosure banks, a probable deer trap and traces of a later farmstead. These remains place the fortress within a working landscape of worship, livestock and settlement. The castle was never simply an isolated stone shell.

A park boundary survives on the hillside to the north. HES cautions against assuming that every medieval park was stocked with deer: evidence here also points towards grazing. Even a substantial earthwork needs interpretation, and its apparent purpose can change when rental records and the direction of its ditch are considered.

The nineteenth century brought a different kind of attention. Walter Scott helped popularise the Borders’ past, and the Duke of Buccleuch undertook extensive restoration in the 1830s. The skyline now photographed is partly the result of that care and reconstruction. Hermitage’s afterlife as a place of literature and imagination belongs alongside its medieval history.

07 / Planning a visit

Allow daylight for the approach and the castle

Checked on 15 September 2026, HES lists opening from 1 April to 30 September, daily 10am–4pm, with last entry at 3.30pm. The castle closes from 1 October to 31 March. Adult admission is £7.50 online or £8.50 in person. Check the official page again before travelling.

Parking is limited, with no marked accessible bays. The approach is about 200 metres, mainly grass, with several steep sections. Inside are cobbles, gravel and stairways, including steep and spiral stairs. The nearest adapted toilet is in Newcastleton, around six miles away. Contact the castle on 013873 76222 to discuss particular access requirements.

Give the approach its share of the visit. Footwear suited to uneven outdoor ground will make it easier to pause and look back at the building. Keep to permitted routes and follow staff guidance. For photographs, take time to notice how the openings and the broad wall surfaces change with the light, before moving closer to the details.

READ / SCOTTISH PARANORMAL

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