Keep Your Powder Dry

The inappropriately named ECWtravelogue turns its attention to Lothian, scene of Oliver Cromwell's arguably greatest military victory. See also Edinburgh Before we turn our attention to the Second Battle of Dunbar, there are a couple of other Wars of the Three Kingdoms locations worthy of our attention. Borthwick Castle's cannon scars Borthwick Castle , was besieged by Oliver Cromwell's forces in November 1650; the garrison, short on supplies, surrendered after receiving only a handful of cannon shots. The damage to the walls from this attack is still visible. Borthwick is now a wedding venue. Dirleton Castle:  post-Dunbar the castle held out and moss troopers from the castle made a considerable nuisance of themselves. So much so, that Cromwell ordered Monck and Lambert to take the castle, with 1600 men. The castle would fall due to a combination of starvation and mortar fire (destroying the drawbridge and inner gate) on the 10th November 1650. A number of the moss troopers...

For more Yorkshire 'related stuff' you can find North Yorkshire here ,  South Yorkshire here ,   East Riding here . See also the Rupert Travelogue  entry for Yorkshire, and the entry for Adwalton Moor Oakwell Hall    was the inspiration for Charlotte Brontë's Fieldhead in "Shirley". More recently it has been used a number of times as a film set, including "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". Located close to the M62 and the Leeds branch of purgatory on Earth (aka Ikea), this Tudor manor house is beautifully maintained by Kirklees Borough Council. The hall is presented as a seventeenth century home. I really like this approach, as so often historic houses have different rooms decorated for different eras, so it is really nice to see a house presented from one era in it's entirety. Oakwell was in the ownership of the Batt family, who supported the King; John Batt was a captain and most probably fought at Adwalton Moor. The retreating Parli...