league with the Earl of March. The attackers were defeated afterwards in a counter-attack led by Archibald, Master of Douglas. A successful attack by Archibald Dunbar in 1443 was followed by a massacre of the castle’s inhabitants. In July 1547, during the war of the Rough Wooing, John Lord Borthwick was made keeper of the 'place and fortalice of Halis.' He undertook to keep it 'surlie fra our auld ynemies of Ingland and all uthairis.' He agreed only to render the house to Regent Arran, and not to the Earl of Bothwell or any of the Hepburn name. If the English came, Arran promised to send 24 horsemen to defend the castle. After the battle of Pinkie, Lord Grey of Wilton occupied it for the English. He took possession on 21 February 1548 and wrote, "the house is for the bigness of such excellent beauty within, as I have seldom seen any England except the King's Majesty's, and of very good strength. Hugh Douglas of Longniddry became the keeper in English pay. Arran retook the castle and slighted it by removing the iron gates or yetts in August 1548. In 1567 James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, entertained Mary, Queen of Scots, at Hailes Castle. All his lands, including Hailes Castle, were later forfeited to the Scottish Crown. Oliver Cromwell partly slighted the building in 1650 after the battle of Dunbar. It later passed into the hands of the Stewarts, the Setons, and finally, in 1700, the Dalrymple of Hailes family. By the mid-19th century the castle was being used as a granary, Sir David Dalrymple, Bt., having taken advantage of the more settled times to move his family to the mansion of Newhailes. Description The castle stands on a promontory on the Scottish River Tyne, blocking its strategic route, and preying on the route to Edinburgh. Within the 13th century curtain wall is the 14th century keep, to which ranges were added in the next two centuries. The major remaining works is the West Tower, a square donjon, which dwarfs the remains of the central tower that the Gourlays built, probably a rebuilding on the 16th century. Fifteenth century work includes a roofless chamber in which the remains of what appear to be an ambry and a piscina suggest it was a chapel rather than a hall. There is also a vaulted basement bakehouse and brewhouse from this period.