Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle DJI Phantom - Gopro Hero 4 Black 4K 30FPS Aerial Test 'Blackness Castle' United Kingdom Blackness Castle looks across the River Forth to the naval dockyards of Rosyth, and along it to the Forth rail and road bridges. The castle is first mentioned in 1449, although there had been a port at nearby Blackness serving the royal burgh of Linlithgow since the thirteenth century.Today's visitor approaches through the little village of Blackness and along a narrow road leading to the small car park within the grounds set out to the south of the castle itself.Blackness Castle forms one side of a grassy area surrounded by buildings. Most of these date from fairly recent times. The south range housing the Historic Scotland shop was built as a barracks in the 1870s, while the more ornate west block served as the officers quarters from the same era. The castle came into royal hands in 1453 when the surrounding lands were annexed by King James II. It spent much of the next century serving as a royal prison housing the more prestigious of the King's various enemies.Much of what you see today dates back to a major reconstruction between 1537 and 1543 under King James V. This transformed Blackness Castle into one of strongest artillery fortifications of its age. This is most obvious in the labyrinthine entrance via the west spur of the south tower, which includes a caponier designed to deal severely with those unwanted visitors who succeeded in getting through the outer gate.This passage within the thickness of the wall provides loopholes pointing back into the courtyard between the outer and inner entrances.But the most formidable aspect of Blackness Castle's 16th century defences are to be found in the South Tower, where the south facing walls were strengthened to produce a wall 5.5 metres thick. These are pierced in several places at ground level to allow artillery to fire to the south and south east. www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk Craig Matheson