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((short description|Castle ruins in East Lothian, Scotland))
((Use dmy dates|date=February 2023))
((More citations needed|date=June 2021))
((Infobox building
|name                    = Yester Castle
|image                   = Yester.JPG
|caption                 = 
|map_type                =
|coordinates             = 
|location                = East Lothian
|location_town           = [[Gifford, East Lothian|Gifford]]
|location_country        = Scotland
|architect               = 
|client                  =
|engineer                =
|construction_start_date =
|completion_date         = Before 1267
|date_demolished         = 
|cost                    =
|structural_system       =
|style                   =
|size                    = 
))

'''Yester Castle''' is a ruined castle, located ((convert|1+1/2|mi|km|round=0.5|abbr=off)) southeast of the village of [[Gifford, East Lothian|Gifford]] in [[East Lothian]], Scotland. The only remaining complete structure is the subterranean '''Goblin Ha' ''' or '''Hobgoblin Ha' ''' (Goblin Hall).<ref>Pronunciation note: The "Ha'" in "The Goblin Ha'" is normally enunciated "Haw".</ref> It is a [[Scheduled Ancient Monument]], recorded as such by the [[Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland]].<ref>((Cite web|url=https://canmore.org.uk/site/56062/yester-castle-and-goblin-ha|title=Yester Castle And Goblin Ha' &#124; Canmore|website=canmore.org.uk))</ref>

==History==
[[File:Garvald or Yester Tower, 1814.jpg|left|upright|thumb|The tower in 1814]]
Originally known as Yestred (from the [[British language (Celtic)|Brythonic]] ''Ystrad'', meaning [[strath]] or [[dale (origin)|dale]]), the barony of Yester was granted by King [[William I of Scotland|William the Lion]] to [[Hugo de Giffard]], a [[Normans|Norman]] immigrant given land in East Lothian during the reign of King [[David I of Scotland|David I]]. Latin language documents note the location as ''Zester'' in vital records.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/scottishrecordso42scotuoft/scottishrecordso42scotuoft/ Publications], by Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh. 1898-. Accessed 25 March 2024.</ref>

The original stone [[keep]], built before 1267, is generally considered to be by Sir Hugo de Giffard. A grandson of the first Laird of Yester, he served as a guardian of the young [[Alexander III of Scotland]], and was by repute a magician and [[necromancer]]. Alexander III is known to have been at Yester on and around 24 May 1278, where he corresponded with [[Edward I of England]]. Following the [[Wars of Scottish Independence|Scots Wars of Independence]], Yester was rebuilt as a castle of ''[[enceinte]]''.

In 1298, during the [[Battle of Falkirk (1298)|Battle of Falkirk]], Alexander de Welles, Master of [[Torphichen Preceptory]], was killed. Based on the heraldic evidence there is very little doubt that Alexander de Welles was a member of the Lincolnshire Welle(s) family. Also at Falkirk was Adam de Welle(s) of Lincolnshire and of the Castle of Yester in Lothian, to whom the English King [[Edward I of England|Edward I]], during his occupation of Scotland, gave various properties confiscated from the Lothian nobility and gentry.<ref>[[National Archives of Scotland]] ref No: GD45/27/141</ref>

In 1357, there being no male line left of the Giffards, Joanna, a daughter and co-heiress, of the last Sir Hugo de Giffard, married Sir William [or Thomas] de la Haye of Peebles, of Locherworth (Locherwart), the [[Sheriff]] of [[Peebles]]. He was invested with the barony and lands of Yester through his wife. The barony has stayed with the Hay family ever since.

David Hay of Yester was in 1487 created a [[Lord of Parliament]], as the first [[Lord Hay of Yester]]. In 1513 during the disastrous [[Battle of Flodden]], John, second Lord Hay, was killed along with a great proportion of the country's fighting men. In May 1544 during the conflict known as the [[Rough Wooing]], the castle, village, and harvest were burnt by the English army returning from the [[burning of Edinburgh]].<ref>Joseph Bain, ''Hamilton Papers'', vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 386.</ref>

John, 4th Lord Hay defended the castle from an English force in 1547, and was captured later that year at the [[Battle of Pinkie]] and held in the [[Tower of London]] for three years. In February 1548 the English commander [[William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton|Grey of Wilton]] captured the castle and put [[George Douglas of Pittendreich]] in charge of Yester and [[Dalkeith Palace|Dalkeith]]. French soldiers taken at Yester were used at hostages by the English.<ref>Joseph Bain, ''Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1562'', vol. 1 (London, 1898), pp. 85, 120, 124.</ref> According to [[Ulpian Fulwell]], the captured garrison was mostly Scottish or Spanish. Two men suspected of shouting insults defaming [[Edward VI]] were made to fight a duel at the market place of [[Haddington, East Lothian|Haddington]].<ref>Thomas Park, ''Supplement to the Harleian Miscellany'' (London, 1812), pp. 368-374.</ref>

1557 saw the death of the 4th Lord Hay. His son, also John, abandoned the castle and moved into a new [[tower house]] on the site of the present day mansion of [[Yester House]]. In 1646 the 8th Lord was created [[Marquess of Tweeddale]]. The castle gradually fell into disrepair, and by the late 17th century was in a very parlous state, the stones having been much quarried for building material. Although the castle almost disappeared completely, Sir Hugo's original Goblin Ha' was tenanted by the Marquess' falconer until 1737. [[Yester House]] with its Adam interiors was sold in 1972 to Italian/American operatic composer [[Gian-Carlo Menotti]] then left to his son, Chip, who sold it in 2013.

[[Image:Gothic Vaulting Goblin Ha'.jpg|thumb|left|Goblin Ha' vaulting]]

==The Wizard of Yester==
Sir Hugo de Giffard was known as the "Wizard of Yester", and was considered to be a powerful [[warlock]] and [[necromancer]]. It is in the undercroft of the castle that he was thought to practise his sorcery. The 15th-century chronicler [[Walter Bower]] mentions the large cavern in Yester Castle, thought locally to have been formed by magical artifice:

<blockquote>"The death occurred of Hugh Gifford, lord of Yester. Old tales tell that his castle, or at least his cellar and keep, were wrought by witchcraft, for there is there a marvellous underground cavern wonderfully constructed and extending under a large area of ground. It is popularly called Bo' Hall."<ref>((cite web |title=The Scotichronicon and the Goblin Ha'|publisher=Edinburgh University Archives |url=https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/edinburghuniversityarchives/2020/10/30/the-scotichronicon-and-the-goblin-ha-witchcraft-and-hobgoblins-in-our-manuscripts |date=30 October 2020 |access-date=30 December 2022 ))</ref></blockquote>

Legend supposed that Hugo was able, via a pact with the [[Devil]], to raise a magical army to his aid, and use them to carry out his will. It is this army of [[hobgoblin]]s that was considered the builders of Yester Castle.

===The Colstoun Pear===
When his daughter Margaret was to marry, Sir Hugo gave her and her husband-to-be, [[Clan Broun|Broun of Colstoun]], a hand-picked pear with the proviso that should anything happen to this fruit it would spell disaster for the Broun family. The pear was encased in a silver box and kept safe; the Brouns prospered.

A few hundred years later however, in 1692, on her wedding night, the fiancée of Sir George Broun, a [[Baronetage of Nova Scotia|Baronet of Nova Scotia]] and inheritor of the Colstoun estate, decided to remove the pear from its casket. The fruit looked as good as when it was picked((Citation needed|date=June 2017)), and she could not resist taking a bite. Misfortune quickly followed. Sir George Broun amassed enormous gambling debts and was forced to sell the estate to his brother Robert. Robert with his two sons were soon after killed, ''en route'' to [[Edinburgh]]; they were swept away by a flash flood caused by the [[River Tyne, Scotland|River Tyne]] bursting its banks. In destitution, Sir George died in 1718 without a male heir. It was said that after the pear was tasted it turned as hard as rock, and with its bitemark in evidence, it is still at Colstoun House to this day.<ref>((Cite web|url=https://www.colstoun.co.uk/the-house|title=Unique Scottish Event Venue &#124; East Lothian|website=colstoun))</ref>

===Literary references===
For his supposed role in the struggles between [[Haakon IV of Norway|King Haakon of Norway]] and [[Alexander III of Scotland|King Alexander]], ultimately culminating in the [[Battle of Largs]], [[Sir Walter Scott]] immortalises Giffard in ''[[Marmion (poem)|Marmion]]'':

<poem>A Clerk could tell what years have flown
Since Alexander fill’d our throne,
(Third monarch of that warlike name,)
And eke the time when here he came
To seek Sir Hugo, then our lord:
A braver never drew a sword;
A wiser never, at the hour
Of midnight, spoke the word of power:
The same, whom ancient records call
The founder of the Goblin-Hall.</poem>
:''Marmion'', Canto III, Stanza XIX, lines 324–333.

==See also==
*[[List of castles in Scotland]]
*[[List of places in East Lothian]]

==References==
((reflist))

==External links==
*[http://community-2.webtv.net/NUbrubun55/GIFFARDOFYESTER/ Genealogical site and Brief history of the Giffards]
*[http://www.maybole.org/history/castles/yester.htm  A History of the Hays and Yester with impression of the Castle when intact]
*[http://www.giffordonline.co.uk/  Gifford Online – village website] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105213111/http://www.giffordonline.co.uk/ |date=5 January 2010 ))
*[http://www.colstoun.com  Colstoun House Website]
*[http://www.hauntedeastlothian.org/ca.html Haunted East Lothian: Yester Castle]
*[http://www.goblinha.com  the goblin ha hotel in gifford]
((coord|55|53|26.23|N|2|42|37.92|W|region:GB|display=title))

[[Category:Scheduled Ancient Monuments in East Lothian]]
[[Category:Scottish folklore]]
[[Category:Ruined castles in East Lothian]]
[[Category:Clan Hay]]
[[Category:Tower houses in Scotland]]
[[Category:13th-century establishments in Scotland]]

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