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Bonkyll Castle
Berwickshire Scotland
Bonkyll Castle.jpg
The remains of Bonkyll Castle
Bonkyll Castle is located in Scottish Borders
Bonkyll Castle
Bonkyll Castle
Coordinates 55°49′42″N 2°18′41″W / 55.8284°N 2.31131°W / 55.8284; -2.31131
Type Castle of Enceinte
Height 1-3m present day
Site information
Owner Private
Open to
the public
No
Condition ruined
Site history
Built 11th century
Built by Bonkyl, Stewart, Douglas
In use 11th–16th centuries
Materials Stone

Bonkyll Castle was a strong medieval fortress in Berwickshire, Scotland. Today, this area is part of the Scottish Borders. It was located about 4 miles north of Duns.

Not much of the castle remains today. The site is protected as a scheduled monument, which means it's an important historical place. Bonkyll Castle was once home to a branch of the powerful Stewart family. This family line eventually led to King James I & VI of Scotland and England.

What Bonkyll Castle Looked Like

Bonkyll Castle was a type of fortress called a castle of enceinte. This means it had strong walls forming an enclosure.

Today, you can mostly see the motte, which is a large mound of earth. This mound was where the castle's main tower or keep stood. There is also a small part of the original curtain wall still standing.

Who Owned Bonkyll Castle?

Over the centuries, different important families owned Bonkyll Castle.

The de Bonkyll Family

BonkyllArms
The de Bonkyll family's coat of arms: three gold buckles on a red shield.

The castle was first owned by the de Bonkyll family. They even took their name from the castle! Their family coat of arms showed three buckles. This is called "canting" because "buckle" sounds a bit like "Bonkyll."

The last male owner from this family was Sir Alexander de Bonkyll. His daughter, Margaret de Bonkyll, inherited the castle. She married Sir John Stewart.

The Stewart Family of Bonkyll

Arms StewartOfBonkyll BendGules
The coat of arms for John Stewart of Bonkyll. It shows the Stewart family's arms with a red stripe across it, decorated with three gold buckles from the de Bonkyll family.
  • Sir John Stewart (died 1298) became known as "John Stewart of Bonkyll." He was the second son of Alexander Stewart, a very important Scottish leader. When he married Margaret de Bonkyll, he added the three buckles from her family's coat of arms to his own. This showed his connection to the Bonkyll family. The castle was damaged during the First War of Independence.

The Douglas Family, Earls of Angus

After Countess Margaret died in 1417, Bonkyll Castle went to her son, George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus. His family, the Douglas Earls of Angus, owned the castle until the late 1700s.

George Douglas, Master of Angus, who was Lord of Bonkyll, signed many important papers while living at the castle. Later, his wife, Elizabeth Drummond, owned it for a time.

The castle was also owned by Margaret Tudor, who was the Countess of Angus and the sister of King Henry VIII of England. In 1523, there was a plan for Margaret Tudor to pretend to help the people of the Scottish borders. The idea was that she would come to Bonkyll with her valuable items, and then be safely taken to England.

In 1593, the poet Patrick Hume of Polwarth was in charge of Bonkyll for King James VI. He used the money from the castle's lands to pay the king's huntsman.

The Earls of Home

In the late 1700s, Bonkyll Castle's ownership passed to the Earls of Home family.

A Local Rhyme

There's a famous old rhyme from Berwickshire that talks about how strong Bonkyll Castle and two other nearby castles, Billie Castle and Blanerne Castle, were. It says they were built when King David I was a child:

Bunkle, Billie and Blanerne
Three castles strong as airn
Built when Davie was a bairn
They'll all gang doon,
Wi' Scotland's Croon
And ilka ane shall be a cairn

This means: "Bunkle, Billie and Blanerne, Three castles strong as iron, Built when David was a child, They'll all go down, With Scotland's Crown, And every one shall be a pile of stones."

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