A short list of erroneous or insubstantial comments made in The Official Souvenir Guide:
Hermitage Castle by Historic Scotland [2016]. The full account of Hermitage taken from the original sources can be found here.
Page 1
1) Liddesdale was once known as
‘the bloodiest valley in Britain' - actually this seems to
come from the typewriter of George MacDonald Fraser in 1989.
2) its 400 year existence - actually over
772 years.
3) key to controlling the Scottish Middle
March - as the history shows, it was very much an irrelevance except
for very local politics.
4) Contemporaries called it
‘the strength of Liddesdale' - no contemporary before 1500
leastways.
5) the building of a castle here brought
Scotland and England to the brink of war - misunderstands the politics
of Henry III (when the booklet says there was no castle here anyway).
Page 2
6) The stone castle was begun by Sir Hugh
de Dacre around 1360 - zero evidence for this and as the history shows,
virtually impossible.
7) was transformed beyond recognition by
Earl William Douglas - zero evidence for this.
8) designed for defence rather than
residence - hardly true of any castle.
9) the flying arches, often mistaken for doors - One is certainly and the other is probably early Victorian.
10) a pair of portcullises between which
intruders could be trapped - or cojoined portcullises which had one up
and one down for extra safety, viz Goodrich.
11) the fourteenth century core of the
castle - zero evidence first house is fourteenth century.
Page 3
12) Was Earl Archibald really ignoble?
Page 4
13) Most of the surviving castle was
begun by Earl William Douglas - zero evidence for this.
14) who became lord of Liddesdale in the
1360s - he became lord in 1358 although he'd been granted the lordship
in 1354.
15) the work was continued by his son
James and... George - zero evidence for this.
Page 6
16) the Sules family residence was more
likely a hunting lodge further upstream built about 1240 - zero
evidence for this.
17) more defensive site moved to between
1327 and 1332 - zero evidence for this.
18) new tower house likely timber - zero
evidence for this.
19) earthworks built for Sules castle -
zero evidence for this.
Page 7
20) the Sules tower - according to
Historic Scotland's dates this was built after the Sules had been
disinherited.
21) was replaced by a stone, fortified
residence - no evidence the residence was fortified.
22) built for Lord Dacre around 1360 -
Dacre lost control of Hermitage in 1358.
23) I or L the mason - really to be
equated to a single man amongst thousands?
24) little ledge at the foot of each door
surround - the central sill stone has been removed.
Page 8
25) Earl William Douglas was lord by 1371
- he was granted the lordship in 1354 and took it in 1358.
26) he remodelled the castle - zero
evidence for this.
27) building work continued after 1384
until the early 1400s - zero evidence for this.
28) the earl built a rectangular tower
house - zero evidence for this.
Page 9
29) Dundonald castle built at around the
same time as Hermitage - zero evidence for this.
30) Threave castle built at around the
same time as Hermitage - zero evidence for this.
Page 21
31) The lordship of Liddesdale... was
granted to Sules by David I before 1140 - it is first mentioned in the
period 1147-50 and not before and there is no evidence for how Sules
obtained land in the district.
32) Sules crossed the English Channel
with William the Conqueror - zero evidence for this.
33) The family's first castle was at
Liddel - a possibility, but little real evidence for this.
34) Lord Ranulf was murdered there - zero
evidence as to where he was murdered.
35) reference to there being two castles
in Liddesdale dates to October 1300 - it was September.
36) Hermitage was a byproduct rather than
the cause of the near war with Henry III.
37) Ranulf Sules built Liddel castle -
zero evidence for this.
38) Nicholas Sules abandons his family
home at Liddel - zero evidence for this.
39) Sules family was originally part of
the invasion force in 1066 - zero evidence for this.
Page 22
40) So ended the Sules association with
Liddesdale - except for William's daughter.
Page 24
41) 1332 Hermitage passed to Ralph
Neville - it actually went to William Warenne.
42) Ralph's hold was short-lived - in
1352.
Page 25
43) Dacre built himself a new stone
residence - zero evidence for this and most unlikely considering the
history.
44) Despite an attack in 1355 - no
reference to such an attack.
45) he seems to have resisted giving
Hermitage up... until the later 1360s - the castle fell in 1358.
46) 1355 Hugh Dacre commissions a stone
castle - zero evidence and as its not even a castle highly unlikely
Page 26
47) Earl William immediately set about
transforming Lord Dacre's manor house [no longer a stone castle] into a
tower house - zero evidence for this.
48) George added corner towers - zero
evidence for this.
49) Earl Douglas built a formidable new
castle at Hermitage - zero evidence for this.
As can be seen this booklet has little in it's history section to recommend it, but then all
the current ‘guide books' seem poor relations to their HMSO
forbears. Sadly the best thing to be said for them is that
they are never as bad as the Wikepedian twaddle usually found on their
history and castle misinformation pages.
Copyright©2022
Paul Martin Remfry