View of Hawthornden Castle with cattle drinking at a river and figures in the foreground

One mile east of Roslin, Hawthornden Castle is dramatically situated on the north bank of the River North Esk. Hawthornden was home to the poet William Drummond, who built a new house, completed in 1638, around the ruined fifteenth century tower. The caves beneath the castle are said to have given shelter to Robert the Bruce. Ibbetson was known to have 'retired to the little village of Roslyn' and to have been attracted to this area of Scotland by 'the fine and romantic scenery of the North Esk' (J.C. Ibbetson, Memoir, Painting in Oil, 2nd edition, 1828).