Bonkyll Castle

Bonkyll Castle
Berwickshire Scotland
The remains of Bonkyll Castle
Bonkyll Castle
Coordinates	55°49′42″N 2°18′41″W / 55.8284°N 2.31131°W / 55.8284; -2.31131
Type	Castle of Enceinte
Height	1-3m present day
Site information
Owner	Private
Open to the public	No
Condition	ruined
Site history
Built	11th century
Built by	Bonkyl, Stewart, Douglas
In use	11th–16th centuries
Materials	Stone

Bonkyll Castle (also variously spelled Bonkyl, Boncle, Buncle, Bunkle or Bonkill) was a medieval fortress situated in the eastern Scottish Borders of which little remains. The site is protected as a scheduled monument.

Excepting the motte on which it stood, and a small section of curtain wall there is little left of the structure of what was once a very powerful Castle of Enceinte.

The caput of the wealthy honour of Bonkyll, the castle originally belonged to the eponymous Bonkyl family, passing by marriage in the late 13th century to Sir John Stewart, son of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland. Sir John's grandson, also Sir John Stewart married Margaret de Abernethy, the heiress of the Lordship of Abernethy in 1328 and the following year he was created Earl of Angus, thus combining broad territories in Berwickshire, Angus, and Kinross-shire. Sir John's granddaughter, Margaret Stewart, being his sole heiress inherited the Earldom of Angus and Lordship of Abernethy, and the honour of Bunkle. She had an illicit affair with William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas, of which liaison, a child was produced, George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus. From the Countess Margaret's death in 1417 Bunkle remained under the ownership of the Douglas Earls of Angus until the late 18th century when it passed to the Earls of Home.