Dirleton
Dirleton | |
---|---|
A row of cottages opposite the castle | |
Location within Scotland | |
Population | (mid-2020 est.)[1] |
OS grid reference | NT511841 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | NORTH BERWICK |
Postcode district | EH39 |
Dialling code | 01620 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Dirleton is a village and
Locale
Dirleton has two hotels, The Castle Inn which looks on to the village green and The Open Arms Hotel. Other visitor attractions today include the Dirleton Gallery, now closed for business,
Two Weeks in September
The 1967 British-French film Two Weeks in September (À cœur joie) [3] was partly filmed in the area. The film starred Brigitte Bardot and Laurent Terzieff and was directed by Serge Bourguignon. Scenes for the film were shot on location in Dirleton Castle and on the beach at Gullane in September 1966. The principal cast stayed at the Open Arms Hotel in Dirleton.[4] Archived 25 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine
Castle
Dirleton is notable for
The heiress of William de Vaux, Lord of Dirleton, brought the barony and estates to her husband, Sir John de Haliburton, about 1430. Their grandson, Sir Walter de Haliburton, High Treasurer of Scotland, was created a Lord of Parliament in 1447. This family failed in the male line and an heiress took Dirleton to her husband, Lord Ruthven, grandfather of the Earl of Gowrie who was forfeited in 1600.[7] The barony then graduated to a number of proprietors during the corrupt 17th century. Finally, Sir John Nisbet, Lord Dirleton (d. 1688), a Senator of the College of Justice acquired it in 1663 and the barony remained with this family into the 20th century. In 1923 the Nisbet family donated the castle to Historic Scotland.
In the late 20th century this feudal barony was purchased by one Patrick Hannigan, from Salvador in Brazil, who subsequently bequeathed the barony to the present baron of Dirleton, Camilo Agasim-Pereira of Fulwood and Dirleton. He was later confirmed as such by disposition recorded in the Land Register of Scotland on 22 April 2002. Since the Abolition of Feudal Tenure, etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, which abolished feudal dues and the legal jurisdiction of the Baron, all Baronies have now been separated from the caput (or Land), but this has not affected the dignity of Baron. The site of the Barony of Dirleton today is Lamb island which was owned by the Barony of Fulwood Trust and then in 2009 was sold to Uri Geller.
Congalton
The feudal barony of Congalton gave its name (or vice versa) to a very ancient family that subsisted in a part of Dirleton parish for twenty generations in the male line. The first on record, Robert de Congaltoun, witnessed a charter of
The elder branch of the family succeeded through heiresses to the estates of Hepburn of Keith, in Humbie parish, and Riccart of Riccarton, in Kincardineshire. Robert Hepburn Congalton of Keith and Congalton, the 18th generation of the family, sold Congalton to his brother who became Charles Congalton of that Ilk (died January 1742) and in 1702 had married Janet Lauder (1671–1751), daughter of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall. Their son William Congalton of that Ilk (died 27 October 1753), who married secondly Mary Bethune (died 1751), daughter of David Bethune, 17th of Balfour, had ten children[10][11][12] of whom only three married.
The eldest son Charles Congalton (1736-1768), a captain in the Royal Navy, in 1762 married Anne Elliot, daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Baronet, of Minto and their two sons inherited their grandmother's estate of Balfour in Fife but did not marry (their sister Eleanor married Colonel John Drinkwater Bethune). A younger son Andrew Congalton (1749-1823), also a captain in the Royal Navy, had a son Charles Congalton who died unmarried in 1827, so ending the male line.[13]
Islands
Three islands,
Elbottle
A Saxon word signifying "the old dwelling", Elbottle is also within Dirleton parish. Near Archerfield House there was a convent of
Radar Station
The radar station at lies just to the north of Dirleton and is one of a handful of Second World War GCI (Ground-controlled interception) Radar complexes that have survived demolition.[19] In the early 1940s it was a site for mobile control and aerial trailers, but because of the continued incursion of night raiders more sophisticated equipment was required to direct friendly fighter aircraft to the enemy and the earlier Chain Home radar network needed to be augmented. The latter was designed to detect incoming waves of German aircraft during daylight and direct British fighters to a point where they could make visual contact (i.e. within a mile or so). In darkness, however, central command had to direct night fighters to within hundreds of metres in order to engage the enemy and the station at Dirleton was constructed as part of a system designed to provide this level of accuracy and control.[citation needed]
The main operations block, often called a Happidrome, was the hub of the complex and it was from here that underground cables ran to the various transmitters and receivers in the surrounding areas. These included height finding equipment, plan and position indicators and machinery for the identification of friend and foe signals sent by incoming aircraft. The information obtained was collated in the operations room and relayed to the fighter stations at Drem and the training unit at Charterhall. Although staff were not billeted at the station it was largely self-sufficient with its own water supply, sewage treatment plant, generator house and telephone exchange. Welfare facilities included canteens, showers and rest rooms. It is clear that in times of emergency the site could have carried on independently of the national grid and, with the blast doors closed and air filtration unit functioning, it could have survived all but the most direct of hits from enemy planes.[citation needed]
In its later life it passed over many of its main functions to other centres but it continued as a training venue until the 1950s. Prior to development of the site a full survey was undertaken by Headland Archaeology and archived at the National Monuments Record of Scotland,[20] it is now a private home.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ "Mid-2020 Population Estimates for Settlements and Localities in Scotland". National Records of Scotland. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ Martine, John, Fourteen Parishes of the County of Haddington, Edinburgh, 1890, p.44.
- ^ Martine (1890) p.52.
- ^ Martine (1890) p.46.
- ^ Buildings of Scotland;Lothian by Colin McWilliam
- ^ Martine (1890) p.45-47.
- ^ Martine (1890) p.47.
- ^ Nisbet, Alexander, Systems of Heraldry, Edinburgh, 1722, p.443.
- Douglas, Sir Robert, The Baronage of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1773, p.521 [1] Archived 1 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Douglas, Sir Robert, The Baronage of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1773, p.523 [2] Archived 22 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- Ulster King of Arms, Burke's Landed Gentry, 9th edition, London, 1898, vol.1, p.717.
- ^ Grant, Francis J., W.S., Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records, Index to Genealogies, Birthbriefs, and Funeral Escutcheons, Edinburgh, 1908, p.11.
- ^ John Burke 'A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Enjoying Territorial Possessions Or High Official Rank: But Uninvested with Heritable Honours' Colburn, 1836 Volume 3, p381 https://books.google.co.uk/ Archived 12 March 2024 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 11 November 2015
- ^ Martine (1890) p.50-51.
- ^ Martine (1890) p.51.
- ^ Reports on the State of Certain Parishes in Scotland, 1627, Edinburgh, 1835, p.117, under 'Dirleton', dated 6 May 1627, there is an assessment of ground-rents and tithes.
- ^ Scott, Hew, D.D., Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, Edinburgh, 1915, vol.1, p.359.
- ^ Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists' Society, 20th volume, Haddington, 1989.
- ^ Holden, T & Brown, I 2008 ‘A Wartime Legacy: Dirleton Radar Station’. Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists Society. XXVII, 117-130
- ^ "Historic Environment Scotland".[permanent dead link]