Hume Castle
| Hume Castle | |
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| Middle English: Home Castle | |
| Hume, Berwickshire, Scotland | |
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 Hume Castle
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| Coordinates | 55°39′55″N 2°28′15″W / 55.66528°N 2.47083°WCoordinates: 55°39′55″N 2°28′15″W / 55.66528°N 2.47083°W |
| Type | Castle of enceinte, recreated as a folly |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Clan Home Association / Historic Scotland |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Condition | Ruined, rebuilt as folly |
| Site history | |
| Built | 12th/13th century |
| Built by | William de Home |
| Materials | Stone |
| Demolished | 1650 |
Hume Castle is the heavily modified remnants of a late 12th- or early 13th-century castle of enceinte held by the powerful Hume or Home family, Wardens of the Eastern March who became successively the Lords Home and the Earls of Home. The village of Hume is located between Greenlaw and Kelso, two miles north of the village of Stichill, in Berwickshire, Scotland. (OS ref.- NT704413). It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, recorded as such by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS).
Standing as it does, on an impressive height above its eponymous castleton, it commands fine prospects across the Merse, with views to the English border at Carter Bar. It had historically been used as a beacon to warn of invasion. Its enormous walls were created in the 18th century but remnants of the central keep and other features can still be seen.
William, grandson of Waltheof, Earl of Dunbar, himself a descendant of the Earls of Northumbria, acquired the lands of Home in the early 13th century, and took his surname from his estate, a not uncommon practice of the time. It is assumed that he built the first stone fortifications at the site.
James II stayed at Home en route to the siege of Roxburgh Castle, the last English garrison left in Scotland following the Wars of Independence. (James was killed by an early bombard during the siege.)
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