Niddry Castle lies between two large shale bings on the South banks of the Niddry Burn, just to the North of the A89, South-east of Winchburgh. It has recently been renovated and is again a private residential property. Visitors should also note that a private golf course now flanks the West and North sides of the castle. Click here for a location map provided by StreetMap.
Niddry Castle from the South-west, with Shale Bing
"Niddry" appears to relate to many similar placenames throughout Britain, from the River Nith in Nithsdale to the River Nidd in Yorkshire, England, and possibly even Neath in South Wales. Other local variants include another Niddrie within Edinburgh and a Longniddry in East Lothian. The likelihood is that the root is Brythonic, particularly given the widespread appearance throughout Britain of the nidd element. Watson gives early forms of Niddry as Nodref, Nudref, Nodereyf, etc. (Watson, Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, p.363), and suggests that the ni element is a corruption of Old Welsh newydd or "new", while the dref element is clearly tref, more usually rendered in modern Welsh and Cornish as tra = "town, farmstead". Hence, Niddry is Newydd Tref, Old Welsh / Brythonic for "Newstead".
The castle itself is basically a four-storey, L-shaped tower dating from the late C15th and was also known as Niddry-Seton, being built by George Seton, the 4th Lord Seaton.
Niddry Castle from the South
Niddry Castle from the South-west
Niddry Castle from the West
A similar castle was built around the same period (and also undergoing renovation at the time of writing) a couple of miles to the North-west at Duntarvie, information on which will be available soon. We also intend to contact the current owners with a view to including internal photographs of the castle (and also plundering their records!).
The Castle from the North-west
Sunset at Niddry
On the South-east corner of the castle lies a large walled garden, now radically overgrown with its walls in bad repair:
The Walled Garden
To this day, various plants of interest can be found growing wild within the garden walls, including raspberry, comfrey, and hedge garlic, although many of these plants also grow wild in the area anyhow.
The castle was also home to the famous C17th Scottish gardener, John Reid, author of The Scots Gard'ner (1683) and The Gard'ners Kalendar (1683), the former described by one modern publisher as the "first Scottish gardening book". Reid (b. 1655) came from a family of Niddry estate gardeners, but only worked there himself in that capacity for one year before moving on to gardens at various other noble houses including Hamilton, Drummond, Lawers (aka Fordie), and Shank in East Lothian. An online reprint of his Gard'ners Kalendar can be found at Ogmios Press.
more to follow...