Seacliff Mansion House is a ruin situated near North Berwick, East Lothian, 25 miles from Edinburgh
This is the Secliff House before it burnt down.
'AULDHAME',beside SEACLIFF or ST. BALDRED'S HOUSE
Type of Site: House
NMRS Number: NT68SW 1
Map reference: NT 602 846
Parish: Whitekirk And Tyninghame
Council: East Lothian
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Auldhame was originally published as St Baldred's House as it was traditionally said to have been the residence of that saint, though other local informants thought that it may have been the remains of a church (see NT68SW 17). However, it is now recognised as a 16th century laird's house (J S Richardson, 7a Tantallon Terrace, N Berwick, 16 December 1952).
The remains, when seen in 1913, consisted of a main block measuring 59ft 9 ins NNW-SSE by 27ft 4 ins transversely; from the E wall two rectangular towers projected to the E and there were circular turrets corbelled out in the northern re-entrant angles. There appeared to have been circular turrets at the N angles of the main block, and outbuildings against the W wall. The building had stood at least three storeys high. The basement, or part of it, has been vaulted and on the first floor was a fragment of a 17th century plaster frieze. The structure was in very bad condition.
Name Book 1853; RCAHMS 1924, visited 1913
The remains of this 16th century house, still in a very poor condition, are generally as described by the RCAHMS. The remains of a wall running WSW from the SW angle of the main block can be seen in two portions of walling still standing to a height of about 3m. The piece of wall nearer the main block contains a rectangular gateway or doorway with moulded jambs; the second piece is located 38m SSE of the SE angle. Also, traces of walling can be seen along the cliff edge between the latter piece of walling and the SE angle of the main block. From this last portion of isolated wall a low stony bank curves W for a distance of some 30m to merge with a modern stone wall. This bank is 2.2m wide and there is evidence of a shallow ditch, 2.5m wide, on its N side. The bank is 0.7m high above the ditch bottom but only 0.1m above the outside ground level.
Visited by OS (WDJ) 13 November 1962
AULDHAME CASTLE
Thee miles east of North Berwick and about two miles north of Whitekirk sits the little known ruin of Auldhame or 'Old-ham' castle, hidden by trees above Seacliff bay just south of Tantallon castle.
The background history to Auldhame is non-existent, unlike the ruin which is substantial, being a long L-shaped building with corner turrets and square towers. Unfortunately the south wing is missing. The building has, or rather had, an orchard and a graveyard of sorts nearby, though it lacked gravestones. This is puzzling,as it appears to be a late-l6th century tower house and not a church or a priory as some historians have suggested, though the site may well have been of religious significance before the castle's construction. It has been speculated that the first Whitekirk church, which was a simple oblong building, was on or near the site. Some historians claim the original kirk was further down the coast beside 'old' Scoughall village. When this ancient church was abandoned, likely due to the raids, allegedly made first by the Vikings then by King Edward I of England's ships in the 13th century, the church was moved inland to the present safer location of Whitekirk village, which carried the name of the original white whinstone building, since the present kirk is bright red.The castle of Auldhame was erected by the Otterburn family, incorporating materia from an eartier buiding, so~e tt me after 1550. Since they had such wild, flamboyant neighbours in the 'Red' Douglases of Tantallon Castle, it is understandable why historians have neglected to cover the history of the Otterburns of Auldhame in any detail.
The crow-stepped, gabled building had a yellow harling wash over its mixed rubble construction, which would have given it a bright yellow appearance against the steel grey waters of the North Sea below. There was an outer barmkin-type wall which keyed into the east end of the castle and wrapped round towards the tvest side. Since the cliff has collapsed beside this wall and because of later quarrying, little remains to trace its bounds accurately.
Likely, as with its grander neighbour Tantallon, a small village sprung up beside Auldhame but because these buildings were made of wood they quickly disappeared after the castle was abandoned in the 1700s. 'Castle-town' before the walls of Tantallon, for example, was a substantial walled settlement with barns, stables and hrewhouses. In 1651 Cromwell's army of 3,000 men spent two days fighting through the streets of 'Castle4own' before bombarding Tantallon itself. Today only the Castleton Farm survives as a reminder of what was once there.
It is possible Auldhame was occupied and damaged by Cromwell's army during their 12-day bombardment of Tantallon. This was after Cromwell's defeat of the Scots army at Dunbar in 1650 and during his systematic destruction of Lothian castles held by Scots loyal to King Charles 11(1660-1685). Auldhame is not mentioned in written reports to Cromwell as it was probably regarded as an unimportant house. Certainly Dirleton, Hailes, Innerwick and Tantallon are all noted in reports. Even Whitekirk church was used as a stable for General Monk's horses during the Tantallon seige. It could well be that the bodies beside Auldhame were Cromwell's dead from this siege, since it was impractical to carry their dead up and down the country. After the fall of Tantallon it was dismantled. Auldhame likely fell to a similar fate as Cromwell's men moved north. By the late 1700s Auldhame, like Tantallon, became the local quarry and was used to build cottages and walls nearby. Fortunately, something remains of Auldhame to remind us of its past glory.
Name Book (County) ( )
Original Name Books of the Ordnance Survey
Book No.26, 16, 40,
RCAHMS (1924 )
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of
Scotland. Eighth report with inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of
East Lothian,
Edinburgh, 130, No.202,
Please email me at Jackdale@seacliff.co.uk 