Tour Scotland Travel Video Clan Sinclair Castle Midlothian

Tour Scotland travel video Blog of the Clan Sinclair castle on ancestry visit to Midlothian. Clan Sinclair, Scottish Gaelic: Clann na Ceàrda, is a Highland Scottish clan who held lands in the north of Scotland, the Orkney Islands, and the Lothians of Scotland. The chiefs of the clan were the Barons of Roslin and later the Earls of Orkney. There has been a castle on the site since the early 14th century, when the Sinclair family, Earls of Caithness and Barons of Roslin, fortified the site, although the present ruins are of slightly later date. Following destruction during the War of the Rough Wooing of 1544, the castle was rebuilt. This structure, built into the cliffs of Roslin Glen, has remained at least partially habitable ever since. The castle is accessed via a high bridge, which replaced an earlier drawbridge. The castle was rebuilt in the late 16th century. A new five storey east range was built into the side of the rock, and the gatehouse was rebuilt, this time with a permanent stone bridge. The upper part of the east range was renovated in 1622, with renaissance details and carving to door and window surrounds. Roslin suffered again from the artillery of Cromwell’s commander in Scotland, General Monck, in 1650. It was further damaged by a Reforming mob in 1688. By the 18th century the structure was dilapidated, though part of the east range has always remained habitable. James Erskine inherited the Rosslyn and Dysart estates in 1789, from his cousin James Paterson St Clair, upon which he adopted the surname of St Clair-Erskine. In 1805, he inherited the title of Earl of Rosslyn, created 1801 for Alexander Wedderburn; since that date, the Rosslyn estate has been in possession of the Earl of Rosslyn.

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