Joseph Mallord William Turner

The ruin and rocky headland depicted here in two faint and slightly smudged drawings could be one of two views. Finberg identified it as the ‘Ruins of Dunbar’,1 an identification that David Wallace Hadrill agreed with,2 and one that is plausible if compared to other drawings of the ruinous castle (e.g. folio 23 verso; D13346; CLXV 23a). However, another view sketched by Turner elsewhere in this book is perhaps more convincing. Sketches on folios 6 verso and 33 verso (D13332, D18880; CLXV 6a, 33a) depict Tantallon Castle above a rocky headland that is just to its north, and both look very similar to the view on this page. The ruin, though faint, is probably closer to the shape of Tantallon, especially in the upper sketch, and the absence of the distinctive ruinous tower shape in both sketches suggests that this is not Dunbar.