NORTH

See also:

• BERWICK, JAMES FITZJAMES

BERWICK  , a royal and police burgh of Haddingtonshire, Scotland . Pop . (19o1) 2614 . It is situated on the south shore of the entrance to the Firth of Forth, 222 M . E.N.E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway, being the terminus of a branch line from Drem Junction . It was created a royal burgh by Robert III . (d . 1406), and though once a port of some importance it dwindled to a fishing hamlet . In the latter half of the 19th century, however, it gradually became a fashionable watering-place, much frequented for its firm sandy beach and bathing, and especially for its two golf-courses . Near the station are the ruins of the abbey of Cistercian nuns founded by David I . Immediately to the south rises the fine cone of North Berwick Law (612 ft.), which was utilized as a signal point at the period of the Napoleonic scare . About 3 in .

E. stand the strikingly picturesque ruins of Tantallon

Castle, which probably dates from the end of the 14th century and was for many generations the stronghold of the Angus Douglases . Though the 6th earl successfully resisted the sieges of James V. in 1528 and 153o, the castle had at last to be surrendered by treaty . It was besieged and captured by General Monk in 1651, and sometime after the restoration became the property of Sir Hew Dalrymple, lord president of session, whose family still own it . It was then dismantled and fell into decay . About 2 m . S.W. of North Berwick is Dirleton, with a castle dating from the 12th century . Edward I. took it in 1298, and in the reign of Robert Bruce it was acquired by the Haliburtons, from whom it passed to the family of Ruthven . On the failure of the Gowrie conspiracy (1600) the castle was forfeited and given to Sir Thomas Erskine (1566-1639), who became Baron Dirleton in 1604, two years later Viscount Fenton, and in 1619 earl of Kellie . Monk laid siege to the castle in 165o, and in 1663 it was purchased by Sir John Nisbet (1609-1687), lord advocate, afterwards a lord of session and Lord Dirleton .