Fa'side Castle


(Falside Castle, Fawside Castle)

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry Arrow

Falside Castle, an ancient peel-tower in Tranent parish, Haddingtonshire, 2 miles SW of Tranent town, and 2¾ ESE of Musselburgh. The E part of its stone vaulted roof remains; and a building, a little to the SW, though later, is quite as ruinous. Standing high, 420 feet above sea-level, Falside commands on a clear day a glorious view of the Pentlands, Arthur's Seat, the Firth of Forth, North Berwick Law, and the Bass. Early in the 14th century, under King Robert the Bruce, the lands of Falside were forfeited by Alexander de Such, who had married a daughter of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester; and they came then to the great Seton family, one of whose younger branches styled themselves Setons of Falside. A spot near the castle was the scene of a disastrous skirmish in 1547, on the day before the battle of Pinkie.—Ord. Sur., sh. 32, 1857.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

If you have found this information useful please consider making
a donation to help maintain and improve this resource. More info...

By using our site you agree to accept cookies, which help us serve you better