Yester Castle and Goblin Ha' — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Goblin Ha' is a medieval motte and bailey beside Yester Castle in East Lothian, where a wooden hall likely stood before stone towers rose. Men may have built the timber castle to watch the coast or claim land for a local family, then rebuilt it as a tower house when wars made wooden walls unacceptable. The name Goblin Ha' sounds like a joke or a warning, as if the castle was so strange or cruel that people stopped calling it by its true name.

Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment records Yester Castle and Goblin Ha' as Motte and Bailey (medieval), Tower House (medieval). The official map says its point is accurate as follows: NGR given to the nearest 10m. The record does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Yester Castle and Goblin Ha' were built by the de Yestre family in the 12th or 13th century. The site is historically significant as a well-preserved example of a motte-and-bailey castle and later tower house in the Scottish Borders.

The historic-place record does not grant public access. Check current conditions and ownership before entering land or a building.