Carberry Tower

Carberry Tower
West front of Carberry Tower
Location within East Lothian
General information
Location	Carberry, East Lothian GB grid reference NT365697
Coordinates	55°54′57″N 3°01′14″W / 55.9159°N 3.0206°W / 55.9159; -3.0206
Website
http://www.carberrytower.co.uk

Carberry Tower is an historic house in East Lothian, Scotland. The house is situated off the A6124 road, 2 miles (3.2 km) south-east of Musselburgh. Carberry, like Musselburgh is in the parish of Inveresk. The property was operational as a hotel and events venue, and is was owned by Clarenco LLP, trading under the brand of AmaZing Venues. Carberry Tower was then sold privately and is now trading under Kingsland Estate. It is protected as a category A listed building.

The lands on which Carberry Tower stands were first mentioned in the 11th century when King David I of Scotland granted "Caerbairin" (Carberry) to the monks of Dunfermline Abbey. The first landowner or lessee was John de Crebarrie, but it was the Johnstone family who were the first owners of Carberry Tower. The original building was a simple square tower house, built more for strength than ornament. In 1541, Hugh Rigg, the King's Advocate, leased the lands from the abbey. It appeared Hugh Rigg had an agreement with the Abbot of Dunfermline to lease until 1585. Both John Knox and George Buchanan recorded an unflattering story that Hugh Rigg advised Regent Arran to change the position of the Scottish army at the nearby Battle of Pinkie in 1547. Buchanan mentions that Hugh was known for his corpulence rather than military skill and Knox suggests that Hugh advised the manouevre to keep the English away from Carberry.

In June 1567, on Carberry Hill, part of the Carberry Estate, Mary, Queen of Scots, faced an army assembled by a confederation of her lords. She quickly surrendered herself to the lords, and was then imprisoned. A monument, the Queen's Mount, still stands nearby commemorating the incident.

In 1587, after the Scottish Reformation, the lands and tower of Carberry were annexed by the Crown and new superiors, the Maitlands of Lauderdale, were appointed. On 1 April 1600, the Riggs received a charter from Queen Anne, wife of James VI of Scotland for a further stay at 'Carberrie'. The estate later, in 1659, passed to Sir Adam Blair of Lochwood, but that family only lived there for 30 years before transferring the property to Sir Robert Dickson of Inveresk, whose son, also Robert, was the Chief Baillie of Musselburgh in 1745, when the rebel Jacobite troops passed between Carberry and Musselburgh on their way to the Battle of Prestonpans on the 21 September of that year. In 1760, John Fullerton moved into Carberry Tower and it was he who began the alterations and enlargement of the tower. It seemed, over the years, as if the extensions were being built, piece by piece, in an anti-clockwise direction. John's niece, Elizabeth, married the Hon. William Elphinstone in 1774 and the house passed into the Elphinstone family in 1801. More alterations on the old tower commenced in 1830.