Blackness, a flyover through time

It has a boat club, a beach, some brightly painted buildings, great food and an ancient fortress overlooking the town. The tongue-in-cheek comparison between Blackness and St Tropez, proclaimed on the wall of the Lobster Pot in the centre of the village, seems entirely reasonable!

Sign on the wall of The Lobster Pot, Blackness

For centuries, Blackness was hugely strategic for both trade and military purposes. As a result, it changed hands many times between private land ownership, the Crown and the Burgh of Linlithgow. Today, it sits unassumingly on its long and interesting history. Let’s go back in time and see some of the action…

A visitor to Blackness in the 16^th century would have been greeted by the view of a busy harbour with ships coming and going with all manner of cargo, a town centre bustling with residents and military personnel, and a large customs house dealing with the lucrative taxes. In the bay there was a tidal mill to grind corn, salt pans, and a sea-cruive to catch fish. There was a chapel, already several centuries old, dedicated to St Ninian on the hill above the town. And of course the imposing royal fortress dominating it all.

Blackness Bay and Castle

Our 16^th century visitor was unlikely to be coming for leisure, but business.

Coal, salt, grains, cloth and hides were exported through the port at Blackness, and a huge range of imports from all over the world came to Scotland here, including timber from the Baltic and Delft tiles. As the main port for the royal residence at Linlithgow, there were also rich and exotic items landed here, such as wine and other alcohol. Chinese silks from Holland, fine linens; tapestries from Flanders and food from afar including exotic spices, figs, raisins, almonds and olives.

Settled since ancient times and probably by the Romans, Blackness rose to prominence as a port associated with Linlithgow in the 12^th century. Its development and strategic importance was linked with Linlithgow for centuries. Already in the early 1300s, when Edward I, Hammer of the Scots, had taken and fortified the royal residence at Linlithgow, he made use of Blackness to land supplies for his army’s successful attack on Stirling Castle in 1304. When Linlithgow was made a Burgh of Regality in 1389, its “haven of Blaknes” was included.

The castle itself was originally built as a private property, not as a royal one. In the 1430s James I had granted the lordship of Blackness to his loyal servant George Crichton, Sheriff of Linlithgow. George became entangled with political intrigues and fall-outs with his in-laws, who happened to be the very powerful Douglas family, and it could have been retaliatory property burnings that led Crichton to first build himself a stronghold at Blackness. A deal with James II however meant he agreed to leave Blackness in his will to the Crown, not to his own son. George’s son James Crichton understandably took a dim view of this deal. Ironically, as the castle was to become a prison in later centuries, its very first prisoner was its own builder, imprisoned by his son: in a futile attempt to thwart the deal, James Crichton took over the castle and imprisoned his father. It was a brief a captivity though - James II arrived with his soldiers and guns and took the castle without too much difficulty. He even brought his wife along to watch the siege. And thus Blackness became a royal castle.

The castle and St Ninian’s Chapel (the foundations of which are visible today) were handed to the burgh of Linlithgow during the minority of the next king, James III, for the town to build a harbour. Seemingly this was because the keepers of the castle has been practising “vexations, troubles, harassments, and extortions” on the merchants of Linlithgow and others frequenting the port. The Crown resumed control of the castle later in the 15^th century, in a policy to reverse grants of strategic properties made during the minority of James III. The sheriffs of Linlithgow were the royal keepers, paid from a percentage of port custom revenue, control over the fishing and salt industries at Blackness, and revenue from the royal rabbit warrens and brewery. The latter were managed by the priest of St Ninian’s Chapel.

Foundation remains of St Ninian's Chapel, Blackness

In 1512, James IV’s magnificent new flagship, the Great Michael, was undergoing sea trials in the Forth. In December, he was at Blackness with his wife queen Margaret Tudor, and went on board the Great Michael in the bay here for an audience with the French ambassador. The occasion was the renewal of the Auld Alliance, the agreement between Scotland and France to assist each other against the English. (The Auld Alliance was renewed by every Scottish and French monarch from its inception in 1295 up to 1560). Less than a year later, James IV lay dead at the Battle of Flodden, where he had gone to fight the English in honour of the Auld Alliance.

The bustling trade and industry of Blackness harbour was becoming increasingly punctuated by conflict and military presence. James V embarked on massive fortification project in the mid 16^th century, so our visitor at this time would have seen the construction work underway at the castle to heighten the central towers, thicken the curtain walls and construct new defences. During the Reformation in Scotland, it was used as a state prison for religious prisoners. It continued to serve as a state prison until around 1745, and had a reputation as “a prison pre-eminently wretched when compared with other prisons.” Prisoners had to pay for their own upkeep, and there are records of one particularly impoverished lord serving a life sentence there for treason, constantly appealing to the government for money. Blackness was used by the French as an ammunition depot while they supported Scotland in the Rough Wooing. Then, during the civil war that followed the arrest of Mary Queen of Scots, Blackness held out for the Queen, but surrendered after Edinburgh fell to the king’s party.

Besides political and military disruption to trade at Blackness, there was another threat to its prosperity: ships were getting bigger, and just along the coast Bo’ness was rising to prominence as a port that was favoured over Blackness. It was closer to Linlithgow and more modern, being able to take larger ships. The presence of the castle and associated disruption at Blackness was becoming more of a hindrance than a help to the harbour’s fortunes.

In 1651 Blackness Castle was bombarded by Cromwell from both land and sea, and surrendered. (The political prisoners in it at the time were delighted to be free). The ancient chapel of St Ninian’s was destroyed during the bombardment. Subsequent decades saw the castle repaired and back in service as a prison, and it was garrisoned and improved during various conflicts in the 19^th century. But the town as a whole never regained its strategic importance.

Today you can walk or cycle along the foreshore, part of the John Muir Way, spot seals and the remains of the post-medieval sea mills in the bay, enjoy great food at the Lobster Pot (al fresco on a nice day), tour the distillery, and visit the castle which now has “film location” added to its history portfolio. The foundations of St Ninian’s 7^th century chapel are visible in the grounds just south of the castle.

I took the photos for this article on one of the hot days last month following lunch at the Lobster Pot, and was as happy as if I had been in St Tropez.

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Published in Konect August 2026

Author: Helen-Jane Gisbourne, using material from Historic Environment Scotland, the Falkirk Local History Society and Archaeology Scotland