Nunraw

(Sancta Maria Abbey)

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

Nunraw Castle, a mansion at the NE border of Garvald parish, Haddingtonshire, ½ mile ESE of Garvald village, 3½ miles ENE of Gifford, and 7 S by E of East Linton. Standing on the western edge of a deep and precipitous glen, it was built about the middle of the 15th century as a peelhouse or fortalice on lands belonging to the Cistercian nunnery of Abbey, near Haddington. Although it has been modernised, it still is a fine old building. The work of renovation laid bare the painted ceiling of its old refectory, bearing date 1461, and emblazoned with the arms of the kings of Arragon, Navarre, Egypt, etc. The estate was purchased from R. J. A. Hay, Esq.of Linplum, in 1880, by Walter Wingate Hay, Esq. (b. 1856).—Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863. See John Small's Castles and Mansions of the Lothians (Edinb. 1883).

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