Tour Scotland Travel Video Clan Douglas Tower Scottish Borders

Tour Scotland wee travel video Blog of a Clan Douglas Tower on ancestry visit to the Borders of Scotland. The tower was granted to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown around 1423. It was incomplete at this time and work continued until about 1475. The present battlements and two square caphouses date from about 1600. After the fall of the Black Douglases the Tower was held by the crown, and in 1473 it was given to Margaret of Denmark, wife of King James III. It was unsuccessfully besieged by an English army in 1547, but was burnt the following year. In 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 100 royalist followers of the Marquis of Montrose were shot in the barmkin of Newark after the Battle of Philiphaugh. The Tower was altered for Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch at the end of the 17th century. It was visited by Sir Walter Scott and William and Dorothy Wordsworth in 1831. The Tower is believed to be haunted by the souls of women and children murdered by brutal soldiers at the site, who are heard each year on September 13th.

The surname Douglas was first found in Moray, where the progenitor of the Clan is thought to be Archibald of Douglasdale, born 1198, died 1239. The Douglasses of Drumlanrig claim descent from Sir William Douglas, who was granted the lands of Drumlanrig in 1412 by King James I. The grandson of Archibald Douglasdale, known as William the Hardy, served as a companion-in-arms to William Wallace, the patriot leader of the Scottish wars of Independence. His two sons carried on his noble reputation. The first, William, was the progenitor of the Douglases of Morton and was granted the Earldom of Morton in 1458 by King James II. The second, Andrew, and his family became known as the Black Douglases.

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