Blackness Castle - Blackness, Falkirk (HS)
The view from the castle walls is filled by the vast expanse of the Forth suspension bridge. Turning back and looking down into the courtyard the solid uneven rock floor is visible where the early builders were unable to break it down. The contrast is striking.
Blackness was originally built to protect the seaport of the royal burgh of Linlithgow. The first castle on this site was built in the fifteenth century by the powerful Scottish family, the Crichtons. It undertook the role of a state prison and garrison fortress in 1453 under James II and four years later artillery was added.
The castle's construction was carried out under the direction of Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, the Master of Works at both Linlithgow Palace and the royal palace in Stirling Castle. Oliver Cromwell's army besieged the castle in 1650 causing extensive damage. Repaired under King Charles II ten years later, it remained a state prison until the Treaty of the Union in 1707.
For the next fifty years it drifted into obscurity and was used as a local garison. Then with the onset of war with France it was re-established as a prison, capable of holding 45,000, this time prisoners of war rather than criminals and Covenanters. Its last military role, at the end of the 19th Century, was to be used as the central ammunition depot for Scotland.
After the First World War the Office of Works removed the military buildings for it to be preserved as a medieval castle. The castle is now under the care of Historic Scotland and in 1990 the castle's courtyard was used by a film company in the making of Hamlet with Mel Gibson and Helena Bonham-Carter.