78 Fawside or Falside Castle. [Sess. 



the time of the battle of Pinkie, was 39 feet 4 inches by 30 feet 

 7 inches over the walls, and contains four storeys, the upper 

 being vaulted. The height to the under side of the vault is 41 

 feet 7 inches, and the entrance is by a round arched doorway 

 to the north. On the ground-floor was the keep, on the first 

 floor the common hall, and on the second the original great 

 hall. The addition, evidently built after the battle, when the 

 buildings were restored, contains on the ground-floor a kitchen 

 with large fireplace nearest the keep on the one side, and 

 another small one at the opposite. Above on the first floor, 

 immediately above the kitchen, is the dining-hall, also with 

 large fireplace : there is off this room a good - sized private 

 apartment, at the end of which, on the west, there has been 

 a window, splayed out like our own bow, in order to allow 

 the inmates as good a view of Edinburgh and the district as 

 possible. On the second floor of this building we have above 

 the dining-hall two bedrooms, and also one above the private 

 room. Off the first of the two bedrooms there was a small 

 closet sufficiently large to admit a bed : here, too, was situated, a 

 little to the west, a hiding-hole 3 feet 6 inches under the closet 

 floor. These additions to the castle extend southwards, and 

 measure 41 feet in length — indicating, according to M'Gibbon, 

 a distinct advance in house-planning. The walls are 10 to 12 

 feet at base, and range from 4J to 6 feet thick. The gable-ends 

 at the south were turreted, and range about 50 feet in height. 

 There is a building, or the ruins of one, to the south of the castle. 

 Whether it belonged to it, or was merely a house built for a 

 dependant, 1 cannot say ; it, however, bears the date of 1618, with 

 the initials " I. F. T. L." I. F. is supposed to be John Fawside, 

 to whose memory a tablet is erected in Tranent Parish Church. 

 " The mode in which the additions have been made at Falside," 

 say M'Gibbon and Eoss, "is somewhat peculiar, resembling 

 rather an addition of modern times than of old. In the six- 

 teenth century an old keep was generally extended by the addi- 

 tion of single buildings round a courtyard, but here we have 

 an addition made so as to render the whole building, old and 

 new, one solid block." 



There used to be a considerable village near at hand, at the 

 base of the hill, numbering 145 of a population. They were 

 principally composed of the mining class, and worked in the 



