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Fa'side Castle (Faside Estate) is a 15th-century keep located in East Lothian. The Fawsydes acquired land in the area in 1371. The earliest part of the present building was constructed by the Fawsydes in the 15th century.
The castle was burned by the English before the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, which was fought nearby on 10 September 1547, suffocating or burning all those inside. Mary, Queen of Scots left Fa'side on the morning of 15 June 1567 for the Battle of Carberry Hill.
The castle was rebuilt and extended to the south in the late 16th century. A surviving oak bed, now at Biggar Museum, was made for Margaret Fawside, who married Patrick Levingstone of Saltcoats near Gullane.
The Fawsydes sold the castle in 1631 to an Edinburgh burgess and merchant called Hamilton. By the 19th century it had fallen into ruin, and was close to being demolished altogether in the 1970s. The restoration work began in 1976 was completed by 1982. The castle remains in private ownership. Faside Estate includes a stud farm and a bed & breakfast business. The building has five bedrooms while the tourist accommodation is in a tower and two cottages.
Fa'side is a L-plan building, being a fifteenth-century four-storey keep with a later turreted block added. There is a vaulted basement. The castle stands on a high ridge with extensive views over East Lothian and the Firth of Forth.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.
